THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



125 



nVuveAvith yellow, and tlitTe are plates on the anal legs of nearly the same size, form and color. 

 The whole body is sparsely covered Avith short yellowish bristles, aside from the fe\v**longer ones 

 which emanate from each tubercle. 



The moths issue during the month of April up to about the middle of 

 ^hiy. The worm acquires its full growth in about a month from the time 

 of hatching, and goes through the earlier moults quite rapidly. In a state 

 of confinement the moths from these first worms have always issued in 

 ,Iuly near St. Louis, and it is quite probable that the insect is frequently 

 :2-hroodcd with us though considered single-brooded further north. 



I have never known this insect to be parasitized, but Mr. V. T. Cham- 

 bers, of Covington, K3\, has know a Tachina-^j to. deposit eggs upon the 

 worm, without, however, preventing its maturing to the moth. 



There is a moth occurring in China (.4. Selene, Leach) which must, I 

 ))elieve, be considered identical with our Luna, or at the most should be 

 considered only as a variety. Dr. Fitch has minutely described such differ- 

 •ences as are supposed to se^mrate the two as s^^ecies. * 



THE POLYPHEMUS ^IJjKV^'O'RM—AttacuslTelecq Polyphemus, Linn. 



(Lejiid ptera, Bombycidaj.) 



t'^''- •'-'■^ This is the 



insect which, as 

 I have already 

 remarked, has 

 been styled, 

 with much jus- 

 tice, " the Amer- 

 ican Silkworm " 

 by Mr. L. Trou- 

 velot, of Med- 

 ford,Mass. That 

 gentleman made 

 a series of very 

 interesting ex- 

 periments in rearing the worm in large quantities in the open air, and in 

 18G5 he had not less than a million feeding upon bushes covered with a net. 

 An interesting account of these experiments, but more especially of the 

 natural history of the species may be found in the first three numbers of 

 that excellent periodical the American Naturalist. 



The eggs of Polj-phemus are deposited singly, or in twos or threes, on 

 the underside of a leaf or upon a twig; and as a further instance of the 

 fallibility of instinct, Mr. Trouvelot has known them to be deposited in 

 the open air upon plants which could not nourish the young worms. They 

 are of about the same size of those of Cecropia, less oval — the lateral cir- 



*ardN. Y. Kep., §180. Note. 



