THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 77 



interesting letter accompanied those which were received from the 

 last named gentleman: 



"I made a nocturnal visit to Mr, Cochran's place, Monday- 

 night, for the purpose of observing the workings of this pest, and 

 spent about 3-| hours, until 1 o'clock in the morning, at the job. I. 

 found on some single dwarf trees over 50 at a time, and from that 

 down, and they were on both apple, pear, peach and cherry. They 

 commence ascending the trees soon after dark, and are found the 

 most plenty from 11 to 12, some remaining on t he trees until daylight, 

 as I found several at 4 o'clock in the morning. Their first drive seems 

 to be the terminal bud, and when these are all gone, they take side buds 

 or even the bark of the tree in many cases, as you will see by the 

 small twigs sent herein. You will see they are of different sizes. 

 Some trees were entirely despoiled of the terminal buds. After they 

 have eaten their fill, they seem to let themselves off the limb by a 

 short web, and drop to the ground. We have found a large number of 

 the worms attacked by the bug found in the tin box*. They would 

 pierce the worm and suck him dry, and frequently two of them were 

 hold of one worm. There were also numbers of spiders about the 

 trees, of various sizes and kinds, all alive and alert, and apparently 

 annoying if not preying upon the worms. Also a beetle, of which I 

 send two specimens, was very active on the ground under the trees, 

 apparently after prey f. The worms were the most abundant on the 

 light sandy soils, and less frequent as the ground grew hard oi clayey, 

 and where it was pretty much all clay, scarcely one could be found. 

 The tin tubes placed around the trunks of the trees, when properly 

 adjusted, were a perfect protection. The injury they have already 

 done is very great." 



Mr. Cochran, speaking of the same worm, says : "Some trees were 

 literally covered with them. Scarcely a bud but that had its worm, 

 and, returning towards 10 o'clock, to those trees which we had in the 

 early part of the night examined, we found others had come as abun- 

 dantly as before. I have observed that they are actually ruining the 

 young orchards along the Lake shore, and, stran ge as it may appear, 

 their owners do not know what is doing the mischief. At Hyde park, 

 where there are many handsome country residences with grounds of 

 great beauty, this worm has been especially injurious to their young 

 shrubbery." 



This worm is represented at Plate 1, Figure 7. Its general color 

 is a very light yellowish-gray, variegated with dirty bluish-green, and 

 when filled with food it wears a much greener appearance than oth- 

 erwise. In depth of shading it is variable however, and the young 

 worm is of a more uniform dirty whitish-yellow, with the lines along 

 the body less distinct but the shiny spots more so than in the full 



* The bug was the Spined Soldier bug. (Arma spinosa, Dallas). See Figure 54. 

 f The Inerassated Geopinus (Geopinus incrassatus, Dej.) a beeUe about £ inch long and of the 

 color and polished appearance of thin glue. 



