524 FIFTH KEPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



4. Kematus ventralis Say. 



" From my friead, Dr. E. R. Boardinan, of Elmira, Stark County, I 

 learned," says Professor Forbes, ^' on the 9th June that the common 

 willow slug [Nematus ventralis Say) had almost completely defoliated a 

 fine tree of wild cherry on his grounds. The species has long been 

 known as an enemy of the willow, but has not been heretofore reported 

 as injurious to any fruit tree." 



5. Lyda fascia ta Norton. 



Miss Murtfeldt reports in Bulletin No. 13 of the Division of Ento- 

 mology, p. 59, the occurrence near St. Louis of the larvie of a Lyda 

 marked in MS. by Professor Riley, who has often taken it around St. 

 Louis, as Lyda cerasi, but which, he informs me, is in all probability L. 

 fasciata Norton. 



This is a gregarious web-worm, and its 

 colonies covered quite large branches 

 with their brown, viscid webs, in which 

 were mingled the castings and exuviae, 

 forming altogether unsightly and dis- 

 gusting masses, which greatly disfigure 

 the trees. 



Whether it is this or another 

 species we do not know, but Mr. 

 Howard L. Clark has presented 

 me with several specimens of a 

 Lyda larva (Fig. 183), which he 

 collected from the wild cherry at 

 Warwick, R. I. The body is short 

 and thick, pale yellowish horn color ; head and prothoracic shield black- 

 ish, as also the last segment of the body, including the slender 3-jointed 

 caudal appendages ; thoracic feet blackish. Length ll"*"*. 



Fig. 183.— Lyda larva ou wild cherry, a, frontview 

 of head; b, side, and c, upper side of end of the 

 body. Bridgham del. 



6. Sme7nnthn8 tmiops A. and S. 

 (Larva, Plate III, fig. 4.) 



As observed by G. D. Hulst, the eggs were laid on the wild cherry 

 in New York May 24 ; the larvae hatched May 30 ; they molted June 

 1, second molt Juue 6, third molt June 11, fourth molt June 16, the 

 caterpillar leaving its food -plant June 24. The moth emerged July 8, 

 so that probably owing to the great heat of the season the whole life 

 history of the moth was comprised in about six weeks. 



I have received specimens from Miss Morton of Newburgh, N. Y., 

 some of which in confinement at Brunswick, molted for the last 

 time July 25, and others began to pupate, while August 3 and 6 

 two moths emerged after being between two and three weeks in the 

 chrysalis state. From one of them emerged a very large ichneumon 



