THE NOVEMBER MOTH, 233 



their instinct to find there, first of all, the means for their suhsistence, and make a 

 retrograde movement only if they meet with any obstacle. They then devour the 

 young foliage as quickly as it develops, so much so that often a fortnight s'lffices to 

 render a tree entirely leafless. 



For their perfect development the caterpillars need from five to six weeks, during 

 which period they sometimes eat daily more than ten times their own weight. It is 

 then that they are most troublesome to us, partly, and chiefly, by their destruction 

 among our shade trees; partly by the considerable amount of an unpleasant matter 

 which they drop ; and last, but not least, by the terror which, in their state of sus- 

 pension, or dropping from the trees, they are apt to create among our ladies. 



After the caterpillar is fully developed, and has, in the mean time, accomplished 

 its work of destruction, it enters its chrysalis state. When ready to be metamor- 

 phosed it selects a safe place of refuge, either in the leaf remnants or on the trunks 

 and branches of the trees, on fences, railings, lamp-posts, or almost anything it hap- 

 pens to reach. 



Larva. — The caterpillar closely resembles the twigs of the elm trees, on the leaves 

 of which it lives, the body being brown, while the large head and terminal segment 

 of the body are bright red. 



Remedies. — Messrs. Graef and Wiebe removed from a single small maple tree in 

 Brooklyn 60,000 fertilized eggs, and it is obvious that their suggestion to carefully 

 scrape shade and ornamental elms in the winter months, if thoroughly carried out, 

 would materially diminish the number of this great pest. Besides this, tarring, i.e., 

 rings of tarred paper, smeared over with printer's ink, should be placed around the 

 trunks and larger branches as early as the middle of April. When the leaves are 

 much infested they should be sprayed in the manner indicated in the introduction 

 to this report. 



15. The November moth. 



Epirriia dilutata (Hiibner). 



Order Lepidoptera ; Family Phal^nid^. 



Feeding on the leaves in spring ; a dirty-green measure-worm, beneath paler bluish 

 white, its breathing pores forming a row of orange-red dots along each side, where 

 is sometimes also a yellow line ; entering the ground in summer, the moth appearing 

 in November. (Fitch.) 



In our monograph of the Phalcenidw we had overlooked the fact that 

 Fitch had observed this moth in New York, flying slowly in forests in 

 November. It appears to be more abundant in sub-arctic regions than 

 in New England, as we have received numerous specimens of it from 

 Newfoundland, and it has also been obtained in Labrador. It is prob- 

 able that it will rarely occur in injurious numbers on elm trees in New 

 England. In Europe, according to Newman, " it feeds on whitethorn, 

 black-thorn, horn-beam, sloe, oak, and almost every forest tree, and is 

 full-fed in June." Our species in British America, probably like E. cam- 

 .bricaria, will be found feeding on the mountain ash, a common tree in 

 Labrador and Newfoundland. 



Moth. — A much larger species than E. camiricaria, which is more common, and 

 which also occurs in Northern Europe. It may always be distiuguished from the 

 other species of the genus by the simple not pectinated male antenntie. The body and 

 wings are pale ash-gray; fore wings with eight well-defiued sinuous or scalloped 

 blackish lines, most distinct on the costa and veins ; the basal line is heavy, and bent 

 rectangularly between the subcostal and median veins ; the next line, rather remote 



