Psychidse 



known, abstaining from the Graminece. It evinces special fond- 

 ness for the conifers, and above all for the red cedar and arbor- 

 vitae. It has proved very injurious to shade-trees in some of our 

 cities, and its ravages in St. Louis and Washington have been 

 made the subject of repeated comment in the literature of eco- 

 nomic entomology. A very full and interesting account of the 

 habits of this peculiar insect was published by the late Professo. 

 C. V. Riley in the "First Annual Report of the State Entomologist 

 of Missouri, " to which the reader will do well to refer. The ' ' bag, " 

 or "basket," of the male insect is smaller than that of the female. 

 The males escape from the lower end of the case in the winged 

 form, and having copulated with the females, which remain in 

 their cases and are apterous and sluggish, die. The female de- 

 posits her eggs, which are soft and yellow, in the sack where she 

 has her home, and ends her existence by leaving what little of her 

 body remains after the ova have been extruded, as a sort of loose 

 plug of desiccated tissue at the lower end of the sack. The eggs 

 remain in the case till the following spring, when they hatch. 

 The young larvse emerge, and placing themselves upon the 

 leaves, where they walk about on their fore feet, with their anal 

 extremities held up perpendicularly, proceed to construct about 

 themselves little cones of vegetable matter mixed with fine silk. 

 After a while they cease to hold these cones erect, and seizing 

 the leaves and branches with their feet, allow the bag to assume 

 a pendant position. They moult within their cases four times 

 before reaching maturity and pupating. 



The remedy for these insects is to simply collect the cases 

 which may be found in the fall and winter hanging from the 

 branches, and burn them. In one of the parks in St. Louis sev- 

 eral years ago, the superintendent caused the cases to be col- 

 lected, and they were destroyed by the bushel, with great benefit 

 to the trees the next summer. 



Genus EURYCYTTARUS Hampson 



This is a small genus of very small case-bearing moths, twc 

 species of which are known to occur in the United States. E. 

 carbonaria is found in Texas. The other species, which we figure, 

 is a native of the Appalachian subregion. 



362 



