AMPHIDASYS COGNATARIA: FOOD-PLANTS, REMEDIES, ETC. lOI 



Food-Plants. 



In addition to the currant and honey locust and maple above noticed, 

 Dr. Packard records as food-plants of the larvai, gooseberry, the Mis- 

 souri currant [Ribes aureum\ and the red SpircKe {Guide to the Study 

 of Insects, 1S69, p. 322). Miss Morton has also collected it occa- 

 sionally from horse-chestnut. Mr. William Saunders thinks that it feeds 

 on pine, having captured the moth several times about pine wood, and 

 being also of the impression that he has bred it from the j)ine (Ecpt. Ento- 

 molog. Sac. of Ontario, for 1S71, p. 39). In the 23d Kept, of N. Y. 

 Stufe Cabinet of Natural Histonj, p. 195, 1 have recorded taking it upon 

 plum. It has also been sent to me from Wisconsin, as quite injurious 

 to apple-trees, which the caterpillars were represented as killing. That 

 they could have caused the death of the trees upon which they fed, is 

 not at all probable. The belief was doubtless of hasty observation. 

 ']'he gentleman sending them, stated ; " Every branch having them on, 

 died. My theory is that they suck the sap from the branch. They did 

 not eat the leaves or branch." After the habit of many of these geo- 

 metrid larvae, the caterpillars in the above instance, having satisfied their 

 appetites, had probably left their feeding-ground and traveled to some 

 dead limb where they might elude observation, through their wonderful 

 mimicry of a dead twig. In this position it was perhaps but natural 

 that the inference was drawn that they were the cause of the death of 

 the branch upon which they were found. 



Distribution. 



This species has broad distribution throughout the northern and 

 western States. It occurs from Maine, throughout the New England 

 States into New York, Pennsylvania, into Ohio (Dayton), Wisconsin 

 (Hoy), and Kansas (Snow). In the Dominion of Canada, it is reported 

 from Quebec and from London. 



Remedies. 



Many of the caterpillars of this family can be made to drop from the 

 branches upon which they are feeding and hang suspended by their 

 thread, by means of a sudden jar upon the limb, when they can be swept 

 off by a stick and crushed. This species will not often be found 

 in such numbers as to be capable of inflicting serious harm. When it 

 does so, if too numerous for hand-picking, it can be destroyed by spray- 

 ing the foliage with a kerosene emulsion. 



