157 



They retain the glassy whitish green cohjr, occasionally varied with 

 a tinge of pink, until the fourth age, after which they are seldom found 

 upon the leaves in the daytime, as their more opaque and darker colors 

 would render them conspicuous to their enemies. 



Maturity is reached in from tweuty to twenty -five days unless the 

 food supply has been irregular, in which case they grow for an entire 

 month or more. They spin considerable web to guide themselves back 

 and forth or to suspend themselves if the foliage be shaken. This silk 

 though very hue is remarkable for its strength. The full grown larva 

 is 25'"'" in length and between 3 and i""™ in diameter, according as it is 

 extended in crawling or somewhat contracted in repose. The form is 

 slightly depressed and tapers toward either end. In some specimens it 

 is of a pinkish or brownish gray, very indistinctly striped even on the 

 sides. In others it becomes of an opaque olive green, with an irregu- 

 lar, ivory white stigmatal band, and finer interrupted dorsal and lateral 

 stripes of the same color. The minute piliferous spots are black, sur- 

 rounded with a whitish ring, hairs black. Head distinctly bilobed, 

 pale brown with transverse bands of a slightly darker shade. The legs 

 and prolegs are rather long and the latter are surrounded with a few 

 stout bristles. The cocoon is formed upon the ground among the fallen 

 leaves. It is of irregular shape, rather flat, and of very tough silk of a 

 dingy brown color. The pupa is slender, elongate and smooth, of a 

 bright, pale golden brown color. The imago appears in about two 

 weeks in midsummer, the second brood hibernating in the pupa state. 



Dr. Riley thinks the species undescribed, and if it should prove to 

 be so will appropriately locate and characterize it. 



The larvaj may be kept in check by careful spraying with any of the 

 arsenical insecticides. I have not as yet experimented with any others. 



Editorial Note. — The above paper by Miss Murtfeldt was read 

 before the Entomological Club of the A. A. A. S., and is published by 

 request in Insect Life. We have had for some time in our collec- 

 tion specimens of this interesting Pyralid obtained in 1879 at Colum- 

 bus, Tex., when, during our sojourn there with Mr. E. A. Schwarz, 

 the larv8B weie found quite abundant on the Osage Orange, in one 

 particular case defoliating the tree. The first imago issued July 19 

 of that year. We supplement Miss Murtfeldt's article by a brief 

 characterization of the moth, which is an undescribed sj)ecies, and 

 which Prof. C. H. Fernald, to whom we submitted specimens, would 

 place in the genus Loxostege Hlibner. This genus, according to Hiib- 

 ner's characterization, is distinguished chiefly by the falcate form of 

 the front wings. In general coloration and markings, and in the form 

 of the wings, the species reminds cme of a diminutive specimen of the 

 common Cotton Worm Moth {Aletia xylina). The genus Loxostege is not 

 recognized by Heinemann, but as the genera Eurycreon and Botys, to 

 whicli the types of Loxostege have been referred, contain a larij;e num- 

 ber of species. Prof. Fernald, who is monographing the family, doubt- 



