SYCAMORE INSECTS. 645 



February number for 1862, page 133 ; but it may be well to repeat here, for the pur- 

 pose of comparison, a more circumstantial description of the mine of the species to 

 which allusion is made. 



The mine oi Nepticula platanella begins as a very slender track, the entire length of 

 which is filled withfrass. This is very soon expanded into a round, conspicuous, blis- 

 ter-like blotch, on the upp^r surface of the leaves, which sometimes obliterates the 

 early portion of the mine ; but in this event it is still perceptible on the separated 

 epidermis as a slender, dark-brown line. After the blotch has been formed, the " frass " 

 is diffused over the floor of the mine, discoloring its surface. 



6. Sycamore miner, no. 2. 



Mines in quite a straight line, when its course is along a vein of the leaf, other- 

 wise it is slightly winding. The mine begins as an extremely minute tract, and is 

 gradually enlarged towards the extremity. A day or two before leaving its mine the 

 larva enlarges the end into a small blotch which has attached to it a long linear track, 

 with a central line of blackish frass. In the enlarged portion of the mine the frass-line 

 changes into one of scattered and separated grains. 



The imago of this species is undescribed, and although I secured cocoonets last 

 fall, which may produce imagos in the spring, I shall be glad if some new observer 

 rears imagos in the coming summer and records a description of them. 



Larva. — The larva is of a lively or bright green color, with a dark green central 

 line of intestinal matters. Head pale brownish. The body tapers somewhat from 

 the thoracic rings. The larva was not taken from the mine for description. (Clemens. ) 



7. Sycamore miner. No. 3. 



Mines at first in a very narrow, transparent track, having a blackish central line 

 of frass, the track being usually much contorted. At this stage of its larval life, 

 which is its earliest period, the miner can scarcely be detected by the naked eye. 

 Three or four days before pupation the larva begins to enlarge the linear mine into 

 a blotch. This enlargement takes place most often over the course of the old linear 

 mine, the latter half of which furnishes the basis of the blotch, and hence leaves 

 within it a blackish frass-line. The edges of the blotch are irregular ; in the mine 

 of Platanella the blotch is circular or nearly so, and the early portion of the mine is 

 filled with frass, while the blotch is formed by dilating the linear track after it 

 becomes five or six lines long. 



Larva. — The larva, when young, is transparent ; color white, tinged with greenish, 

 with the thoracic segments swollen, giving it a fusiform appearance. Subsequently 

 it becomes of a pale-green color, retaining, however, the swollen thoracic rings. 

 (Clemens.) 



8. The sycamore leaf-folder. 



Order Lepidoptera; family PVRALiDiE ? 



A caterpillar, very active in its movemeuts when disturbed, was 

 observed folding a leaf of the sycamore (September 15 to 30, at Provi- 

 dence) and spinning a large whitish web in the crease. It eats the 

 inside of the leaf In the autumn of 1885 this caterpillar was very 

 abundant, often three tentiform webs on the under side of a leaf, and 

 at least every other leaf contained a worm. September 25 to October 1 

 it made an oval, broad, thick, somewhat reddish silk cocoon between 

 the leaves and attached the mass to the bottom of the box, the cocoon 

 being rather tough and dense, with bits of leaves fastened to the out- 

 side. 



