‘ 
. 
182 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FOREST AND SHADE TREES. 
they are still in their pitch cells unchanged (Noy.). Is it a case of 
retarded development, due to the drying of the bark and wood ? 
The pupa has a length of 0.73 of an inch. Color light brown with 
the extremities dark. Over the dorsal portion of the abdominal rings 
are the usual rows of teeth; those on the anterior margins scarcely ex- 
tend below the spiracles. The clypeus is without a pointed process ; 
the medio-dorsal Yidge of the thorax is unusually prominent. 
When about to transform it bores through the pitch wall and escapes, 
leaving the pupa skin protruding. ° 
The moth (female) expands 1.2 inch. Fore wings opaque; hind wings 
transparent. Color blue-black, as follows: fore wings, the clothed por- 
tions of hind wings, head, palpi, thorax, upper part of abdomen, anten- 
ne, and legs. The neck fringe and the sides of the collar are orange, 
also the ventral side of thé abdomen and the tail fringes. The anten- 
ne are long, slightly enlarged toward the end; there is a decided orange 
line on the under side of the antenne for one-third their length; the 
tarsi are smoky. The male not seen. (Canadian Entomologist, xiii, p. 
5-7, 1881.) 
53. THE PITCH-DROP MOTH. 
‘ Nephopteryx (Pinipestis) Zimmermanni Grote. 
Order LEPIDOPTERA; family PYRALID&. 
In June and July wounding the trunk of the red and white pine below the insertion 
of the branches, the presence of the larva being detected by the exuding pitch; the 
Jarva livid or blackish green, eating on the inner side of the bark and making fur- 
rows in the wood; in July spinning a papery cocoon, the moth appearing from 10 to 
14 days afterwards. 
Mr. A. R. Grote has ealled attention in the Canadian Entomologist 
(vol. ix, p. 161) to this pest of the red pine (Pinus resinosa) and white 
pine (Pinus strobus). The caterpillar occurs in the months of June and 
July, when the trees affected show by the exuding pitch that they are 
suffering from the attacks of this insect. The wound occurs on the 
main stem below the insertion of the branch. The worm in July spins 
a whitish, thin, papery cocoon in the mass of exuding pitch, which - 
seems to act as a protection to both the larva and the chrysalis. The 
moth appears in ten to fourteen days after the cocoon is spun. 
Mr. Grote adds that the worm usually infests the main stem at the 
insertion of the branches; and from the fact that the pitch of the trees 
protects the caterpillars no wash would injure the insect; hence exter- 
mination with the knife is the only remedy. : 
In vol. x of the same journal (p. 20) Mr. C. D. Zimmerman, the origi- 
nal discoverer of this pest, gives some further account of it. He writes 
that there is searcely a pine more than four feet high on his grounds 
which is not more or less affected by this borer. ‘I have found it on 
Pinus strobus, P. rubra or resinosa, P. austriaca, P. sylvestris, P. cembra, 
Corsican, lofty Bothan and Russian pines. P. sylvestris seems to sutter 
most, as the limbs, and often the main stems, are constantly breaking 
off. Only a few days ago one of our finest specimens of P. strobus (a 
