744 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



From what we have been able to learn, we conclude that there are 

 two broods of this insect in a year, and that the second brood hiber- 

 nates in the larva state. May 25, burrows were found from which the 

 moths had already issued. In the breeding cages at Washington the 

 moths issued until June 20, when the last one made its exit. August 

 23, larvte were received which were nearly full grown, and were pre- 

 sumably of the second brood. In the following January nearly all the 

 larviie found were only about half grown ; none were more than two- 

 thirds grown. 



At the approach of winter the larvae prepare their burrows for hiber- 

 nation by lining them with delicate layers of white silk, which often 

 form tubes closed at the lower end. The larva remains through the 

 winter with its head at the posterior end of the mine. Before the 

 change to the chrysalis state, however, this position is rer^ersed and the 

 head is towards the opening. 



Wherever a twig is pierced and bored by one of these larvae the leaves 

 begin to turn yellowish and the twig often dies. In many cases, how- 

 ever, more than one of the larvae are to be found in a single twig, and 

 this of course more certainly insures its death. It seems probable that 

 the principal damage done is the disfiguring of the shape of the tree by 

 the destruction of the terminal shoots. 



The moths bred from the burrows were submitted to Professor Fer- 

 nald, who decided that they represented a new species, probably be- 

 longing to the genus Retinia. This species he describes in the Cana- 

 dian Entomologist, vol. xi, p. 157. We quote Professor Fernald's de- 

 scription of the moth, and append descriptions of the larva and pupa 

 so that the insect may be recognized in whatever stage it is found. 



It is probably this caterpillar which in the summers of 1873-'74 proved 

 very destructive to the pitch-pine bushes in and about Brunswick, 

 Me., causing the upper part of the bush to turn yellow and die. 



April 2, 1883, we found a larva in a burrow situated partly in pitch, 

 head downwards. We also noticed that the new growth of leaves at 

 the end of the twig infested were about one-third as long as the normal 

 needles. 



The moth. — Head in front, basal joints of antenn;e and palpi white; last joint of 

 palpi and a few scales upon the outside of the middle joint dark gray. Eyes black, 

 vertex light sulphur yellow to straw yellow, antennae dark brown, annulated with 

 whitish. Thorax above white, with a few scattered gray scales ; beneath silvery 

 white. Abdomen above light brown, with a silvery luster ; lighter at the end of 

 each segment ; beneath lighter ; last segment in the females darker brown above and 

 beneath, and without the silvery luster. Anal tuft in the males light straw color. 

 Fore and middle legs light brown, femora and tibite of hind legs white, tarsi of all 

 the legs brown, ringed with white. Forewings ferruginous brown, the extreme 

 costal edge from base to near the apex dark brown. A number of small white spots 

 rest upon thecosta, four hairs beyond the middle, from all of which stripes composed 

 of white and leaden-hued scales extend, more or less irregularly, across the wing at 

 nearly right angles with the costa, and having something of a wavy appearance in 

 some specimens, with some indication of a basal patch, a central and subterminal 



