Report of the State Entomologist. 55 



hud fallen to five degrees above zero. With the exception of rising 

 somewhat with the sun, it continued at that temperature for several 

 davs. 



The larvjB were found in a field six hundred feet in width, scattered 

 over that distance for about three hundred feet in length, at an aver- 

 age distance apart of perhaps two feet; but in certain jilaces, they lay 

 in great quantities and all alive. The field was covered, as well as all 

 of the surrounding country, with from one to two feet of snow and ice. 

 There was no manure in the field. 



On the following day I found that the greater part had disappeared, 

 and the few that were left were dead, and a number of crows were 

 bus}' in picking them up and eating them. 



I did not look for them bej'ond the space named, and am unable 

 therefore to say an^-thing aboiit the area over which they fell. 



Description of the Winter Caterpillar. 



One of the snow caterj)illars received from Professor Penhallow was 

 fed on spinach leaves to maturity. It pupated May 13, but failed to 

 disclose the moth. The following notes were made of its appearance 

 when full-grown: 



Dorsum dull yellow, with numerous interrupted, crinkled, longi- 

 tudinal lines — the two dorsal ones, defining the mesial strij^e, con- 

 tinuous; two black dots on the anterior portion of each segment 

 dorsallv. Head small, less than one-half the bi'eadth of the middle 

 segments, brownish, with black reticulations, with two black lines over 

 its front, dividin;,' to border the ^ — the latter pale; the four eyes 

 black; hairs long. Abdomen with a subdorsal dark green stripe, 

 paler at the sutures, bordered below with a narrower white one; a 

 broader substigmatal stripe just above the spiracles, traversed medially 

 with a paler line, and bordered by white; a pale green stripe between 

 this and the subdorsal above; below this a stigmatal pale yellow strij^e 

 bearing the small oval black stigmata; ventral region watery-green; 

 posterior end of body quite tapering. Legs and prolegs pale — the 

 latter with a black band outwardly at their base. Length of larva, 

 1.25 inch; breadth at widest, 0.23 inch. 



Its Midwinter Occurrence in Sullivan County, N. Y. 

 A similar appearauce of this caterpillar in midwinter, had been 

 brought to m}^ notice two 3'ears previously through some newsjnxper 

 accounts of " a shower of yellow worms," that had followed a snow 

 storm at Liberty and at Stevensville, in Sullivan count}', N. Y., on 

 December 27, 1884. After communicating with several persons in 

 search of some precise information of the phenomenon, I was so for- 

 tunate as to obtain what I desired from the gentleman who observed 

 the occurrence, and who was able to give an intelligent account of it — 



