118 APPLE AND WALNUT LEAF-CRUMPLERS. 



" The Applk-Trke and Plum-Trbe LEAr-CRUMPLKR.— This insect passes the winter in a half- 

 grown larva state, and is rendered very conspicuous at this season by the little clusters of 

 dried leaves attached to the twiga of the apple and plum-trees in which the larvae lie con- 

 cealed, sometimes singly, but often two or three in company. Besides the covering of 

 dead leaves, each larva is enclosed in an elongated, conical and somewhat twisted case, 

 rough externally, but of fine texture and polished surface within. As soon as the foliage ex- 

 pands in the spring, the caterpillar begins to devour the leaves in its immediate vicinity, 

 drawing them in around itself, and confining them there by threads of web. It is thus en- 

 abled to feed at ease, by protruding its body partially from the larger and open extremity of 

 its case. The larva arrives at maturity about the end of June. It is then about two-thirds of 

 in inch long, sixteen-footed, pale dull green, with a brown head. It now slightly closes the 

 mouth of its case, and changes into the chrysalis state. Before the middle of July the perfect 

 insects begin to make their appearance in the form of small gray moths belonging to the 

 family Tineida3. The antenna setaceous and simple; labial palpi long and recurved; maxil- 

 lary palpi short and distinct; wings narrow and applied to the sides of the body when at rest; 

 length four and a half lines, or less than half an inch; color light gray, slightly varied above 

 with brown ; across the end of the wings are three oblique blackish lines, the ternainal one 

 consisting of a series of black points." 



Subsequently, in May, 1860, Mr. Walsh, not having noticed this ac- 

 count, published in the same journal another sketch ot this insect, ac- 

 companied with an imperfect figure, and for the first time gave the 

 species the scientific name which it now bears. 



Mr. "Walsh designated this insect by the popular name of the "ras- 

 cally leaf-crumpler," and to another insect which he described he ap- 

 plied the epithet of " the hateful grasshopper." Such terras cannot 

 meet with general approval. However injurious or obnoxious some 

 insects may be to us, the application to them of epithets indicative of 

 rascality or malignity is incorrect, and r^ngnant to good taste. The 

 term bogus, also, applied to certain insects because persons ignorant of 

 entomology have mistaken them for other and more notorious species, 

 is equally objectionable. The specific term nebulo means the same 

 thing as the English cognomen, but being couched in one of the dead 

 languages, it is perhaps admissible, more especially as it certainly pos- 

 sesses the merit of euphony. 



