154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



spicuovis of which are dull red and white. The antennae of 

 hoth sexes, are finely pectinated or toothed like a comb, on 

 both sides, those of the male being very much the broadest, 

 and resembling some beautiful fern-leaf. 



One of the vaporer-moths, the Org-yia leucostig-ma, which is 

 very hurtful to the elms, horse-chestnuts and other shade trees, 

 is occasionally found upon the apple in sufficient numbers to 

 prove mischievous. Its larva is one of the most gaudily attired 

 of all caterpillars, being of a bright yellow, clothed with fine, 

 long yellow hairs upon the sides, with the head and two little 

 warts, toward the end of the body, bright coral-red, and three 

 spreading black plumes of long hairs, two just back of the head, 

 and one at the other extremity. The male moth, on the other 

 hand, is of very plain, almost quaker-like appearance ; having 

 ashy gray wings, variegated with somewhat darker bands, and a 

 small white spot on each fore-wing near the hinder angle, from 

 which it derives its name ; its antennas are of a widely pectinated 

 form, curved like a bow. The femtde is wingless, like that of 

 the canker-worm moth, of which we shall presently speak. 

 She deposits her eggs on the surface of her hairy cocoon, and 

 covers them with a white, frothy matter of a water-proof char- 

 acter, never stirring from the spot where she has lain as a chrys- 

 alis save to provide for her future progeny and die. The empty 

 cocoons and the eggs may be readily distinguished during the 

 winter and should be removed and burnt. The elms on Boston 

 Common are much infested by them, and men are regularly 

 employed by the authorities to brush them off, and wash the 

 bark of the trees with a mixture of clay and soap-suds. 



In August and September we sometimes find a whole branch 

 stripped of its leaves by a swarm of round, yellowish larvae with 

 darker longitudinal stripes, and black heads with a yellow 

 collar ; if disturbed, they raise both ends of the body from the 

 leaf or twig, clinging only by the two or three pairs of feet 

 about the middle. These are produced by the Ewnetopona 

 lyiinistra, a buff-colored moth, with brownish bands upon the 

 wings, and a rich, dark brown or reddish velvety patch just 

 back of the head ; who lays a score or more of white, rounded 

 eggs upon the under side of a leaf in July. Attacking the 

 leaves in the same manner and at the same time as the last, is 

 frequently noticed a very prickly caterpillar, black, with yellow 



