INSECTS. Ill 



remain in the ground m this state all winter, and are changed tc 

 moths and come out oetween the middle and end of July. These 

 moths belong to the genus Pygcera, so named because the cater- 

 pillar sits with its tail raised up. The antennae are rather long, 

 those of the males fringed beneath, in a double row, with very 

 short hairs nearly to the tips, which, however, as well as the whole 

 of the stalk of the antennae in the other sex, are bare ; the thorax 

 is generally marked with a large dark-colored spot, the hairs of 

 which can be raised up so as to form a ridge or kind of crest ; the 

 hinder margin of tfce fore-wings is slightly notched ; and the fore- 

 legs are stretched out before the body in repose. Our Pygcera was 

 named, by Drury, ministra, the attendant or servant. It is of a 

 light brown color ; the head and a large square spot on the thorax 

 are dark chestnut-brown ; on the fore-wings are four or five trans- 

 verse lines, one or two spots near the middle, and a short oblique 

 line near the tip, all of which, with the outer hind margin, are dark 

 chestnut-brown. One and sometimes both of the dark-brown spots 

 are wanting on the fore-wings in the males, and the females, which 

 are larger than the other sex, frequently have five instead of four 

 transverse brown lines. It expands from one inch and three quar- 

 ters to two inches and a half. 



There are seen on the oak, the birch, the black walnut, and the 

 hickory trees, swarms of caterpillars slightly differing in color from 

 each other and from those that live on the apple and cherry trees ; 

 they are more hairy than the latter, but their postures and habits 

 appear to be the same. They are probably only varieties of the 

 ministra, arising from the difference of food. 



CORN CATERPILLAR. Indian corn often suffers severely from the 

 depredations of one of the genus Nonagrians, known to our farmers 

 by the name of the spindle- worm. This insect receives its common 

 name from its destroying the spindle of the Indian corn ; bat its 

 ravages generally begin while the corn-stalk is young, and before 

 the spindle rises much above the tuft of leaves in which it is em- 

 bosomed. The mischief is discovered by the withering of the leaves, 

 and, when these are taken hold of, they may often be drawn out 

 with the included spindle. On examining the corn, a small hole 

 may be seen in the side of the l3afy stalk, near the ground, pene- 

 trating into the soft centre of the stalk, which, when cut open, will 

 be found to be perforated, both up wards and downwards, by a slen- 

 der worm -like caterpillar, whose excrementitious castings surround 

 the orifice of the hole. - This caterpillar grows to the length of an 



