INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE PLUM-TREE. 



THE GREEN, CHESTNUT-BACKED PLUM CATERPIL- 

 LAR. 



(^Acronycta super ans, Guenee.) 

 Order of LEPIDOPTERA. Family of Noctuid^. 



On the 18th of June I discovered upon a plum-tree, and at a 

 distance from each other, two rather thick-bodied green caterpil- 

 lars, with a broad chestnut stripe along the back, once inch long 

 when extended, but usually a little shorter owing to their habit of 

 humping up the anterior half of the body, whilst the head and 

 posterior part remained upon the same level. When first observed, 

 in the middle of the day, they were not feeding, but resting per- 

 fectly motionless. I put them ia a box and fed them with plum 

 leaves. During my absence from home one of them escaped. 

 The other crept under a chip lying upon the earth with which the 

 bottom of the box was covered, on the 23d of June, and inclosed 

 itself in a thin cocoon mixed and covered with particles of earth, 

 and attached to the under side of the chip, in a manner very simi- 

 lar to that of the Pear Caterpillars described on a preceding page. 



On the first of July I found upon another plum tree, a much 

 smaller, less than half grown individual of the same species, hav- 

 ing a small Ichneumonideous cocoon attached crosswise to the un- 

 der side of its body, just in front of the anal prolegs. The para- 

 sitic Ichneumon-fly emerged from this cocoon on the 10th of July. 



On the same day, (J uly 10th,) the first mentioned caterpillar 

 emerged from its cocoon, in the form of a gray and white moth, 

 belonging to the genus Acronycia, and very similar to, if not iden- 

 tical with the species named at the head of this article. It is a 



