The Lancaster Farmer 



Pro£ S. S. BATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., AUGUST, 1875. 



Vol. vn. No. 8. 



' THE DROP WORM." 



Thyridopteryx ephemer^eformis. 



The " Rag-worm," aliax " B:uskot-worm," 

 alias "l)i-op-\vonu," aliax "Sack-bciiror," 

 alias "S;u,-k-liiincr." of llic (Jevinans. Tlii.s 

 is a vi'iy old insect ilcprrdator in llio (Joni- 

 nioiiwiall.li of rL'nnsylvania. Tliiity yt'urs a^o 

 wi'rcad llic n-inililication ol' a paia^'iaiili con- 

 taininjian allwsion niaili' to it by Riinl)raiit 

 Teal, of I'liiiadi'liiliia, alKint the year 1S20. 

 Mr. I'lal iiHTcly noticed several follicles pre- 

 senled to him as curiosities for his luu.seuTn, 

 that had Iw'tii taken IVoni a tree on the l)anks 

 of the Schuylkill, or the Wissahiekon ; but al- 

 thon.ijhlK^ knew they contained au'orm, he did 

 not know hut what they always rciuaine<I a 

 worm — at lea.st he did not know auythiu!r 

 about the imiKjo, or mature insect, nothiuL; 

 about their sexual distinctions, their transfor- 

 mations, their developmental pro<;ress, their 

 sea.sous, their destructive habits, nor yet the 

 kinds of trees most ^^enerally infested by them 

 — only a "natural curiosity." 



In i>*4S we Temoved from Jfarielta, Pa., to 

 the city of Lancaster, and althouiih durinu; tlie 

 five previous years we h.ad pretty extensively 

 canvas.sed the south-west end of Lancaster 

 county and the north-east of York county, in 

 all that time we had never noticed the folli- 

 cles of this insect in .a sint;le instance. Our 

 lirst knowledge of it w;is in the summer of 



1S4'.». The late F. J. K , one Sunday 



afternoon, called our attention to the foli- 

 age of a larjje apricot tree in his back yard. 

 Tlie tive was+nll of fruit, but the leaves 

 were dryinjjand becoinint; faded and crisp, 

 and what was most sint^ular, they did not 

 fall to the groinul, but in the calmest 

 wt^atherthey would seem to be occasionally 

 a;::itated, and would be moved from iilace 

 to place with a sort of jerk: Occasionally 

 one or more follicles would fall from, tiie 

 tree, and become suspended for a time, and 

 then lind its way back to the tree asjain. 

 One of the branches of the tree aluio.st ex- 

 tended into a window in the second .story, 

 the extreme end restins; upon the window 

 sill, and it was "then and there" that m 

 discovered the nature of the " blight," and 

 i-ecoiinized the presence of a (/Keer .saoA', fas- 

 tened by one end to a leaf or a twig, and it 

 was then and there, too, that we lirst dis- 

 covered these insects, and had the first sight of 

 the lively lilthi larva that was snugly concealed 

 within the |)recincts of the follicles. 



We made no further observation at that 

 time, hut during the sunnner of 1S.")0 a linden 

 tree on the corner of North (Jueenand Orange 

 streets was .st'riously infested, having thous- 

 aud.s of these follicles upon it, almost defoli- 

 ating it. Then we commenced a series of 

 olwervations, which continued for four years, 

 anil we examined about live hundred of the 

 insects and their .sacks before our observations 

 Were completed, and all the different stages of 

 the in.sect brought to view. The.se observa- 

 tions, witli a series of illustrations, were sub- 

 seipientlv published in the Pcniisi/lvaiiid Fnrm 

 Jtmrnal, Vol. IV., pp. HI, LVi. ^>72, then 

 imblished by J. L. Darlington, West Chester, 

 lsr>4. The only work, on American Kntomol- 

 ogy to which we then had access was "Harris' 

 Treatise on Insects Injurious to Vegetation" 

 (borrowed froin the .St.'ite Library by Mr. S.), 

 and as this contained not a single line in refcr- 

 ence to this insect, we availed om-.self of all the 

 book information we could obtain bearing 

 upon the subject, from Vol. VII. of the Xnt- 

 iinth'Ms' Lihrarij, pp. 110-115. ]ilate 0, ex- 

 tracted from a pai>er by the Rev. Lan.sdown 

 (Juildiiig, published in'the XVth vol. of the 

 "Tran.sactions of the Limuean Society" of 

 London, 1.S2G. Mr. Guilding's observations 



were made on a West Indian spi'cies, in lsl7, 

 which he named Oihtiritx lirhi/i, and the an- 

 alogy between his observations and ours were 

 such — as well a.s tln^ figures— that we referred , 

 our speeii's to the same genus. ; 



From the fact that this insect had been no- 

 ticed in I'lMuisylvania more than tifty years 

 ago, and not An""'i'>i;/ that it existed elsewhere, 

 we named it specilically jh aiisiilriinii-ii.'y, but 

 our manuscript remained uiiiiiiblished for a 

 year or more after our observations had been 

 compleleil, and therefore diil not appear in 

 lirint until 1S.")4. Subsecjuently we found in 

 the October number of the j'lAit/i// C((/(ii.'afor 

 for ISS.'i, an account of what appeared to be 

 the same insect, from the pen of Dr. Harris, 

 in which hr had named it roiii/crwn, from the 

 fact that his specimens — sent to him from Vir- 

 ginia — had been found only on cone-bearing 

 ti'ces. At that period we had never found it 

 on cone-bearing trees at all, but subsecjuently 

 we did, but not conspicuously freipient to ded- 

 icate such a name to it. Then, and since, we 

 have found it on apple, cherry, pear, quince, 

 nectarine, ai)ricot, peach (rarely), locust, lin- 

 den, maple, elm, arlior-vitiu (very freciuently), 

 hawthorn, beach, spruce, rose and oak. In- 

 deed there is hardly a tree that it will not feed 

 upon, but it seems to be partial to arbin--vit:r, 

 linden and locust — at lea.st we have found it 

 most numerous on these trees, and on a singlfe 

 occasion which came under our notice it com- 



pletely defoliated a mnnber of cedars in a 

 church-yard ; but on pines we have only found 

 it sparingly. When it is allowed to jjecome 

 numerous, it can disligiirc a tree in a very 

 short space of time. 



WIk n Mr. Ilaworth described it, or when 

 he gave it tli<' scientilie name by which it seems 

 to be generally recognized jioic, is mor<' than 

 wo can tell, for we have never seen his descrip- 

 tion, but we suppose that his " precedence " is, 

 of coiu-se, perfectly legitimate. Under any 

 circumstances it has a " terrible long name" 

 for such a little subject. Oikrtiru.^, the generic 

 name to which wo lirst referred it, is a Greek 

 term and means, substantially, a solit.ary in- 

 habitantof a house. IVitirUhijilcryx, we believe, 

 has a similar significance. The specific name, 

 EjihnacnTfiirmiK, we presunK-, alludes to its re- 

 semblance of an Ejiltrmenr—a "Day-fly," or 

 " May-lly. " There is one fact, however, that 

 came under our observation, which we have 

 not found siH'cilically corrol>orated by others, 

 excei)t in a single instauce, and that w,i.s by 

 the late venerable Maj. LeConle, and that is, 

 when the male insect first emerges from the 

 \ni\y.i stale, the wings are all opanue and nearly 

 lilack, except about the iwsterior half of the 

 hind wings; but the motlis are so restless and 

 flit about .so heedlessly and vigorously, that in 

 a very .sliort tim(> the wings beeoiw all trans- 

 parent, or nearly .so. The male h;VH the power 

 of extending the abdomen lo an incredible 

 length, and while so extended, and with the 



wings transpari'iit anil expanded, a faint re- 

 semblance to an Kjjltoiicnr may be more or 

 less recognizable; but in re|Ki.se the wings arc 

 closed against the body, and deflexed. In the 

 latitude of lianeaster county, and under our 

 ob.servations, the young are excluded from thn 

 eggs from the 20ili to tlu; -JSlh of May, anil 

 the males evolve from the ;<i(;i'i about the mid- 

 dle of September, but the females never come 

 from fill? follicle or sack alive. Almost imme- 

 diately after the females are ferfilized the 

 males die — that act seems to entirely exhaust 

 them. Thi^ lignres accompanying this paper 

 sulliciently illu.strate this in.sect in its varioiLs 

 stages of development not to need a more 

 specific description. Fig. a is the mature 

 larva. The head and three anterior .segments 

 are glo.s,sy and motth'd with black and blueish 

 white, and the remainder of the Inidy i8 

 swarthy and fleshy. Fig. h is the male jmjia, 

 dark brown or nearly black. Fig. c is the 

 female, without feet or other organs, save an 

 ovipositor — a mere sack of eggs, wliieh can Ih; 

 seen through the white skin and exti-ndiiig up 

 to the, very head. A ring of brown silky llo.ss 

 adorns the anfepenultimate abdominal seg- 

 ment. Fig. d is tlu' male imaijn with the wings 

 exi)aiided, thickly coated with dark brown, or 

 nearly l)laek, flossy fur or hair. Fig. c is an 

 opened follicle, .showing the female with the 

 pupa-skin removed and exposing the eggs, a 

 yellowi.sh white. Fig. / is the lurra in the 

 sack, showing the manner in which it car- 

 ries it about. In repose it is fiustened lo a 

 branch, anil the entire l)ody is drawn in. 

 Fig. 7 shows the young in their cone-shaped 

 follicles, a short time after their exclusion 

 from the eggs. 



On one occasion the young came forth 

 from a follicle suspended in our sanrlum^ 

 and it was quite amusing to notice the 

 agility of these little subjects of the insect 

 realm. Faeh jiossessed its own silken cord, 

 down which it slid like a sailor, until it 

 reached some object below, where each be- 

 gan almo.st immediately to construct it.s 

 hnliilaruJitm, out of the material at hand. 

 Some fell on books and constructed them 

 of ]iaper and leather; others fell to the 

 floor and used Chinese matting, with which 

 it was covered; whilst othei's attached 

 themselves to the wall and u.sed small scales 

 of lime "whitewash." These follicles are at 

 lirst cone-shapid and erect and they continue 

 in that position until tliey get too " toi>- 

 heavy ;" after which they are suspended as 

 seen at Fig./'. Out in the open air these in- 

 fantine follicles are made of the epidermis of 

 the leaves and brani'hes, especially the latter. 

 These insects arc often infested by liymcn- 

 oiiterous parasites — esijcciallj- si>ecies of Icil- 

 NEfM.vxiD.K, half-a-dozen or more being 

 found in a sack, each spun in a separate co- 

 coon, but all adhering together. We ipiestion, 

 however, whether they are ever destroyed by 

 birds, unless they swallow "sack and all;" 

 for the material is strong, and they have the 

 power of collapsing the ends, and making 

 their dislodgment therefrom very diflieult. 



The " Bag-worm " belongs to'tJ\e creimscn- 

 hirious Lki'idoi'TKUA — twilight flying moths 

 — and the family I'syciiid.K. Ith.as an ex- 

 ten.sive geologicil range, having Ixien found 

 on Lonj Island and in other jiarts of Xew 

 York State, Xew .lersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 

 Maryland, District of Columbia," Old and West 

 A^'irginia, North and South Carolina, Gex)rgia, 

 AlaViama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mis.sonri, 

 Indiana. Illinois, and no doubt in most of the 

 .Southern and Southwi-stern States, although 

 in Harris' time it was not known in any of 

 the Kastern States. 



( )ur history and ohservationi? were also |inl>- 

 lished in the Furmir ami (iardnur, of Pliil.l- 

 deli>hia, some t«u yeai-s ago, and should there 



