346 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



from maple. These larvjB, having molted at least four (probably five) times, pupate 

 from the latter part of July to the end of September; the pupal state lasts from 

 eighteen to twenty days, the imagos flying from the middle of September until the 

 last of October in New England. The larvae are not rare upon Betula alba and B. 

 lutea. 



6. The silver spotted hepialus. 



Hepialus argenteomaculatus Harris. 



Mr. S. Lowell Elliott lias made the interesting discovery that this 

 ^ne insect during its larval state probably bores into the trunks of the 

 chestnut, as he took the chrysalis from a chestnut stump, in June, on 

 Long Island. 



We have in the United States twenty-five described species of Hepi- 

 alus, some of which are undoubtedly synonyms, as pointed out to us by 

 Mr. Henry Edwards. But of the larval habits of these, say twenty 

 species, nothing is known. In Europe the Hepialus hamali bores in the 

 roots of the hop vine. Judging by the frequency with which our Hepi- 

 alus mustelinus occurs as a moth resting on the trunk and branches of 

 the spruce, growing amid ferns, I am inclined to think that we may 

 possibly find the larva boring in the roots of ferns growing in spruce 

 woods. 



So far as I have been able to ascertain the larv.T of the European 

 species of Hepialus feed on the roots of herbaceous plants ; thus, ac- 

 cording to Stainton, the larva of Hepialus hectus " feeds on the leaves 

 of the dandelion ; " that of H. lupuUnus ^'on the roots of herbaceous 

 plants;" that oi H. huniuli is found "at the roots of hop, burdock, net- 

 tle, etc. ;" H.velleda feeds on the roots of the common fern {Pteris 

 aquilina), while the larva of H. sylvinus is unknown. 



Harris states that the empty pupa skins of this or of an allied species 

 are sometimes found on our sea-beaches. 



Fig. 130. Hepialus arijenteomaculatus —Watx del. 



Mo<A.— The body is light brown; the fore-wings are of a very pale ashen brown 

 color, variegated with darker clouds and oblique wavy bands, and are ornamented 

 •with two silvery white spots near ihe base, at the inner angles of the discoidal cells ; 



