890 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



abundance along the Cherry Mountain road from Fabyan's to Jefterson, 

 N. H., a few miles north of the White Mountain house. The larches 

 had been ravaged rather severely and many of the worms were still 

 lingering on the branches, feeding upon the leaves ; while many young 

 trees had been stripped, wholly or in part, of their leaves. Some dead 

 larches were also to be seen. 



In this year (1885), Mr. John G. Jack reports that the larches at and 

 around Chateauguay, Quebec, were " all attacked," and were more 

 abundant than in former years. Mr. Jack further remarks : 



My father hae told me that about thirty years ago the tamarack woods were en- 

 tirely defoliated, and looked as though scorched by fire, aud he thiuks that the saw- 

 fly larvte were probably the cause. It was more noticeable at that time, as there 

 were large tracts of land covered with tamarack forest that have now entirely dis- 

 appeared. (Rep. Ent. Soc. Ontario, 1887, p. 17.) 



Its devastations in Canada. — Mr. Fletcher remarks in the Canadian 

 Entomologist, November, 1884, that during the summer of 1884 he had 

 observed enormous damage done by the larch saw-fly ; " he had first 

 noticed it near Quebec, and had traced it all down the Intercolonial 

 Railway, wherever any larch trees occurred, as far as Dalhousie, where 

 he found it abundant." He found a small bug {Podisus modestus) de- 

 stroying the larvje at Brome, P. Q. 



Rev. T. W. Fyles in the same journal stated that this saw-fly had ex- 

 tended its ravages along the Beauce Valley to the neighborhood of 

 Quebec, where it had stripped the larches bare. A second growth of 

 leaves had appeared and this probably would save the trees. 



2. Sphinx caterpillar. 



This fine caterpillar, which I have as yet been unable to identify, was 

 found by Mr. C. G. Atkins at Hinckley, Washington County, Me., 

 August 22, 1882. The following description was drawn up from a 

 freshly preserved alcoholic specimen, with the colors still fresh. 



Larva. — Head elevated a little towards the vertex, which, however, is not conical, 

 the sides of the head slightly square, with a dark purple line bordered in front with 

 white; head flat in front, greenish yellow; body green, sprinkled with minute dark 

 rings with a clear center ; seveu lateral, oblique, dark purple bauds becomiug paler 

 behind, aud then white ; the seventh connects above with the black purple conspic- 

 uous band on each side of the long slender horn. Supra-anal plate edged with white ; 

 thoracic feet reddish, abdominal feet concolorous with the body. Leugth, 37™'". 



3. Platysamia Columbia Smith. 



This fine moth in its early state feeds upon the larch, where it has 

 been found by the late Mr. Anson Allen as well as Mr. Charles Fish, 

 of Orono, Me. The species was described by Prof. S. I. Smith, who 

 found the cocoons alone " mostly attached to N'emopanthes canadensis aud 

 Rhodora canadensis ; a few were found upon Kalmia angustifolia and 

 maple, and one upon the larch." The following descriptions of the early 



