THE LARCH LAPPET MOTH. 893' 



6. The imperial spiny catkupillar. 

 Eacles imperialis Hiibuer. 



Noticed ou the tamarack by G. D. Hiilst (Biilletiu Brooklyn Ento- 

 mological Society, p. 77). 



7. Platycerura furcilla Packard. 



The caterpillar of this moth occurs frequently in Maine on the larch ; 

 usually of its normal style of coloration ; one occurred with the ground 

 color reddish, frosted over with silvery white, while another was very 

 striking in coloration, the ground color being deep black, with large 

 pure white patches and a dorsal row of large white heart-shaped spots. 



8. The larch lappet moth. 



Tolype laricis (Fitch). 



Though a rare insect, and probably never destined to prove specially 

 injurious to coniferous trees, its habits, as worked out by Mr. Fitch, 

 and more fully by Mr. Lintner, are of unusual interest. It is confined, 

 so far as yet known, to New England and New York, while its congener^ 

 T. velleda, ranges over the eastern and southern United States. The 

 following account is taken from Mr. Lintner's first annual report of the 

 State Entomologist of New York : 



The larva is wonderfully adapted to elude the gaze of its enemies, its body beiug 

 flattened, as observed by Fitch, " somewhat like that of a leech, and on each side of 

 each segment projects a little lappet or flat lobe. These lappets are pressed down 

 upon the surface of the limb on which the worm is at rest. The sides of the body 

 are also fringed with hairs which are similarly appressed to the limb. Thus all 

 appearance of an abrupt elevation or an interstice to indicate the ends and sides of 

 the worm is obliterated, and it resembles merely a slight swell of the natural bark, 

 the deception being made complete by the color, which is commonly identical in its 

 hue with the bark. And when there are spots or marks upon the caterpillar, they 

 imitate the glandular dots, scars, and other discolorations which will be seen upon 

 the bark around it. Even upon the closest scrutiny the eye fails to detect anything 

 by which we can be assured that this elevation is not a tumor which has grown in the 

 bark. The cocoons which they construct upon the limbs are equally exact counter- 

 feits of the bush. One of these upon a limb of the wild black cherry is * * * 

 placed longitudinally in the slight angle formed exteriorly where one limb branches 

 from another, and a piece of putty could not be more perfectly molded into this angle 

 and smoothed off so as to leave no inequality. The bark of the cherry is blackish 

 with transverse whitish streaks, and this cocoon presents the same colors, and of 

 tints almost the same ; and what is most remarkable, it in one place shows a whitish 

 streak continued from the bark upon the surface of the cocoon. And finally, in their 

 perfect state, the moths imitate appearances which are common upon the particular 

 trees on which they dwell ; those upon deciduous trees, in the colors and scalloped 

 margins of their wings, resembling a tuft of withered leaves, those upon evergreens 

 resembling a scar where the turpentine has exuded and concreted into a whitish 

 mass." 



There are, says Lintner, two annual broods. From the eggs laid the 

 previous autumn the caterpillars hatch late in April, which become 



