l895-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. IO9 



A CURIOUS HAMMOCK AND ITS MAKER. 



Coriscium cuculipennellum Hubner. 

 By M. V. Slingerland, Ithaca, N. Y. 



In 1890 I noticed that several of the leaves on a young ash tree 

 near my office window had been rolled into peculiar cones by 

 some insect. The same year, while reading that quaint and 

 charming little volume on " Insect Transformations," written by 

 Rennie three-score years before, I found, on page 324, an inter- 

 esting account (from Bonnet) of this or a similar ingenious cone- 

 maker. This account led me to study the insect more closely, 

 with the results given below. 



I succeeded in rearing some of the adult insects in July, 1891. 

 In the figure A is shown one of the grayish fuscous moths, - 

 about three times natural size ; the markings on the wings are of 

 a dark-brown color. A specimen was sent to Dr. Fernald, who 

 finally decided (in January, 1893) that it was a new species ; and 

 he gave it the manuscript name of Coriscium slingerlandella. 

 Anyone whose name has thus been applied to some insect can 

 understand the peculiar interest with which I then looked upon 

 the little creature. But Dr. Fernald had sent one of my moths 

 to Lord Walsingham in February, 1892. Nearly a year later, 

 and about a month after Dr. Fernald had named the moth, word 

 came from Lord Walsingham that the insect was identical with 

 one of Hiibner's species, cuculipennellum. Dr. Fernald has 

 called attention to the fact that the insect had never been ob- 

 served in this country before ("Canadian Entomologist," xxv, 

 196). It was with a slight twinge of regret that I relabeled my 

 specimens with the equally long name, and proceeded to search 

 the literature for some account of its habitSiwhich might sup- 

 plement my observations. I found that Ragonot liad given a 

 detailed account of its life-history in 1873 (Bull, de Soc. Ent. de 

 France, pp. 166-168). 



The following account of the life-history of this curious ham- 

 mock-maker is drawn from my observations and from the accounts 

 of Rennie and Ragonot : The pretty little moths emerge in the 

 latter part of Summer or early Fall and doubtless hibernate. 

 They come forth in the Spring and ' ' deposit a single q%% upon 

 the upper surface of the leaf by the side of the mid-rib near the 

 tip. A week or ten days later the larva leaves the &%% and 



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