536 ^"E\V YORK STATE MUSEUM 



or curved brown lines, the outer margin being dark brown. The hind 

 wings are pale yellowish brown. 



Life history. The eggs are laid in June and the larvae are met with 

 from August onward, the moths appearing the following May. 



Butternut woolly worm 

 IMonopliadints caryae Nort. 

 Large, flocculent masses on the underside of butternut leaves in midsummer, may 

 conceal bluish, yellowish white sawfly larvae about i^ inch long. 



This species is rather rare and was brought to our attention on account 

 of the woolly white covering of the caterpillars which, when they occur in 

 masses, gives them a resemblance to anything else but insects. This spe- 

 cies was taken in August 1902, on butternut at Nassau N. Y. The larvae 

 rested so closely together that the woolly covering gave them the appear- 

 ance of being a solid mass. These false caterpillars feed in company, 

 devouring the terminal portion of the leaf, rejecting the midrib and usually 

 a small portion of the basal part. Cast skins or exuviae were found on the 

 older leaves and these were yellowish white, with the tip of the mouth parts 

 and eyes a dark brown or nearly black. 



Description. The nearly full grown larvae are about ^4 inch long, with 

 the head, thoracic and terminal abdominal segments pale yellowish white. 

 The other body segments are bluish gray with a very narrow, interrupted 

 black dorsal line. The woolly matter is excreted from the conspicuous 

 transverse folds and appears in narrow bands about '32 inch wide. These 

 develop rapidly and on larvae naked the previous night, had attained a 

 length of I 64 inch the next morning. These waxy filaments are pushed out 

 and eventually are about y^ inch long, giving a very peculiar appearance to 

 the bearer. 



The adult is a black, red-marked sawfly having a wing spread of nearly 

 Yz inch. 



Natural enemies. Numerous pupae of a species of Cratotechus were 

 found on a leaf near the larvae of this sawfly, undoubtedly parasites of 

 this species. 



