THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



color, which may be seen, about the first week in 

 July, fluttering, in the dusk of the eveuii;g, about 

 the trees. Both sexes are provided with wings, the 

 males being distinguished from the females by 

 having feathered antenna; — apairof organsattached 

 to the head. After pairing, the female moth lays 

 her eggs, in clusters of fifty or more, upon the 

 branches of the trees, to liatch out next spring. 



The scientific name of this moth is Ennomos 

 suhsitjnaria, Hiibner, and was described and 

 figured many years ago. It may be found solitary 

 and rarely in the woods, not far from the scenes of 

 its ravages, where birds and predacious insects ex- 

 ercise their mission of .preventing excessive produc- 

 tion unhindered by man. But birds avoid crowded 

 cities, and the effort to colonize them in our public 

 squares, so far as their ability as exterminators of 

 the worms is concerned, has failed; being thus 

 almost entirely relieved of their natural enemies, 

 they have been allowed to "increase and multiply" 

 to an unlimited extent. For more than a month in 

 early summer our most beautiful shade trees are 

 defoliated, and localities rendered almost impassable 

 by the suspended worms. In fact, the nuisance 

 has increased to such an extent, that stringent mea- 

 sures must be adopted to relieve the public. 



Many remedies have been suggested, which, if 

 universally applied, would do much to mitigate, if 

 not efiectually stop, the evil. Syringing the trees 

 with a solution of whale oil soap has been suggested, 

 but such a remedy appears to be too expensive, 

 and therefore impracticable. Several of our daily 

 papers, in warning their readers of the reapproach 

 of the nuisance, suggested a remedy by scraping 

 the eggs of the moth from the branches and the 

 twigs of the trees. This would do if it could be 

 eflFectually done ; but how are we to reach the small 

 twigs of the topmost branches? The effect of clear- 

 ing only that portion of the tree readily reached 

 would be scarcely observable, when the eggs are 

 hatched, and the caterpillars are dangling in the air 

 apparently as numerous as ever. And again, some 

 citizen, with a laudable desii'e to do his share of the 

 work of extermination, may cleanse his trees tho- 

 roughly, while his neighbors on either side for some 

 distance, do nothing, and the labor of this good citi- 

 zen is lost, as the moth from his neighbors will in 

 due season deposit eggs upon his trees, to be^latched 

 the next season. Some of our citizens cut down 

 their trees as the shortest method to get rid of the 

 worms, but this is a poor plan, for, if followed, 

 every infected tree must bow to the axe, and the 

 whole city be left without .shade. 



If we desire to effectually get rid of this nuisance, 

 we must go to work in earnest, and the work must 

 be done thoroughly and universally. We therefore 

 suggest that Councils pass an ordinance compelling 

 every householder to keep the trees on his premises 

 clear of the worms, in the same manner that they 

 are compelled to clear the snow from the sidewalks 

 in winter, and refrain from washing them during 

 certain liours in the summer. Wo think this will 

 be elfcctivc, since it will be an united effort of the 

 people for the common good. 



A good plan of ridding the trees of the worms 

 is the following: — At midday, or during the hours 

 of warmest sunshine, when the worms are most ac- 

 tive, a sudden jar with a mallet or a vigorous shake 

 of the trees, will dislodge and bring down hosts of 

 the insects, and those suspended by their threads 

 can be easily swept to the ground by a pole, and 

 then instantly killed. This operation, repeated 

 three or four days in succession, will most eflfec- 

 tually clear away the worms from the trees. In 

 some cases it may not be possible to discover and 

 destroy all the worms that have come to the ground, 

 especially beneath large trees growing among grass, 

 but the increase will certainly be checked, and if 

 this plan is carried out for two or three years in 

 succession, the insect will become as rare in the city 

 as it is now in the country, where it has its natural 

 and most powerful enemies to contend with. 



To depend on the destruction of such small ob- 

 jects as the eggs, which might readily escape our 

 observation, or on the destruction of the insect after 

 it has transformed into the moth state, (and, for 

 aught we know, had already deposited her cluster 

 of fifty or more eggs in some safe place) as an 

 effectual plan for the extermination of the pest, 

 seems to us to be folly. We must attack the cat- 

 erpillar or worm itself, for it is easily seen and de- 

 stroyed, and then we are sure that it can never 

 reach maturity to propagate the nuisance for ano- 

 ther year; whereas, if allowed to perfect its trans- 

 formation, it may be the means of founding a colony 

 of fifty or more worms the next spring. 



A FEW EEMASKS ON SILK-PEODUCIITG 

 LEPIDOPTERA. 



Our excellent friend. Dr. John G. Morris, of Bal- 

 timore, who has written very ably on the Ailanthus 

 silk-worm, Sumia ci/nihia, Hiibn., in the Smithso- 

 nian Reports, informs us, that the Japanese or Oak 

 silk-worm is a distinct species, as he has learned 

 through his correspondence with European Natu- 

 ralists. In the work, however, from which we have 

 compiled our account of the native treatment of the 

 Japanese worm, the species is called Salurnia cyn- 

 thid, a determination which we now believe to be 

 erroneous. The generic name Saturnia does not 

 belong to S. ci/iithia, but is used by those natural- 

 ists who would incorrectly refer nearly all the spe- 

 cies belonging to the Bombycid sub-family Attaci 

 to the European genus Saturnia. The narration 

 of the Japanese manner of treating their "oak- 

 worm," will perhaps furnish us some hints in breed- 

 ing our native Attaci for silk-producing purposes, 

 since the habits of all these species are analogous, 

 and Ptiitysamia cecropia and Telea polyphemus, 

 (probably our most available silk-producers) will 

 be found subject to similar conditions of life with 

 their Asiatic sub-family associates. 



We therefore continue our remarks on the treat- 

 ment of the "oak-worm" for silk-producing pur- 

 poses, in Japan. — After the third moult of the 

 larva3, these can be transferred to trees in the open 

 air, to complete their transformation in a state of na- 



