THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



35 



is by carefully studying out the habits of each 

 species, anil adapting the mode of attack to the 

 pcculiai'ities of the fortiflcation, which we 

 are about to besiege. The tactics that took 

 Sevastopol would have failed at Vicksburg ; and 

 Richmond would never have fallen, if the opera- 

 tions which proved so successful against the 

 Mississippi fortress had been exclusively em- 

 ployed against the capital city of the Southern 

 Confederation. 



TIIK l!.\(;-W(fi;M. alias lUSKET-WOKM. alias DROP- 

 WOl.'M. 



( Tlnjiidoptcryx ephenienvfonnis, Haw.) 



[F'S 



Mrs. Mary Treat, of Vine-land, N. J., sent us last 

 Juno great numbers of the newly-hatched larvae 

 of this Bag-worm, and expressed a desire to learn 

 something of their natural history. As we are 

 continually receiving specimens of this peculiar 

 insect, for detei'mination, we have coucluded to 

 give an account of it, by aid of the above illus- 

 trations. (Fig. 28.) 



Tl'ie Bag- worm may be regarded as a Southern 

 rather than a Northern insect, though it is found 

 as fiir North as the northern part of New Jersey. 

 It may even occur at points above this; but 

 specimens which Dr. Harris hatched on his 

 place, at Cambridge, Mass., from eggs obtained 

 from Philadelphia, had not yet acquired their 

 full growth by the 25th of September; and he 

 expressed the opinion, that the greater portion 

 of them would be arrested by frost before com- 

 pleting their growth.* Mr. C. J. S. Bethune 

 also informs us that it is not met with in Canada. 



It is known to occur on Long Island, N. Y., in 

 New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsy 1- 



♦ Kutoraological Con-espoiultnce, Kan-is, \t 2-14. 



vania, Oliio, Maryland, District of Columbia, the 

 Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, South 

 Illinois, and South Missouri. Like the Canker- 

 worm, the Tussock-moth, and all other insects 

 in which the perfect female is wingless, the 

 Bag-worm is extremely local in character, often 

 abounding in a particular neighborhood, and 

 being totally unknown a few miles away. 



The clothing made by different solitary in- 

 .sects, for protection either against the inclem- 

 encies of the weather or against their enemies, 

 is even more varied in cut and make-up, than 

 are the divers costumes of the diflereiit peoples, 

 I civilized and barbarous, which inhabit our globe. 

 Some insects live in the interior of leaves, using 

 the upper and under cuticles as protection ; some 

 make their coats out of the leaves them- 

 selves ; some make cases of a sort of gummy 

 cement, while others use cases of spun 

 ^ilk; but by far the greater number, of 

 those which protect themselves at all, 

 employ silken cases which they cover and 

 disguise with some other material. Thus, 

 lichens, grass, rushes, stones, shells, sand, 

 wool, cotton, hair, wax, and the bark, 

 twigs and leaves of trees, are all used for 

 this purpose, while a few worms actually 

 use their own excrement arranged on the 

 outside of their cases with mathematical 

 precision. Unlike us mortals, however, 

 these insects do not change the fashion of 

 their dress with every change of season, 

 but follow strictly the pattern used by their an- 

 cestors, who cut, spun and wove, ages before 

 our primordial mother sewed fig-leaves together 

 to hide hel nakedness. The follicle of our Bag- 

 worm is covered by the leaves and stems of 

 those trees or shrubs upon which it subsists; 

 and when evergreen leaves are used they are 

 often very regularlv and prettily arranged after 

 the fashion of thatching. 



Throughout the winter, the weather-beaten 

 bags of this insect may be seen hanging from 

 almost every kind of tree. Upon plucking them 

 at that season many will be found empty, but the 

 greater proportion of them will, on being cut 

 open, present the appearance given at Figure 28, 

 e; being in fact partly full of soft yellow eggs. 

 Those wliich do not contain eggs are the niale 

 bags, and his empty chrysalis skin is generally 

 found protruding from the lower end. From 

 the middle to the end of May, in the latitude of 

 St. Louis, these eggs hatch into little active 

 brown worms, which, from the first moment of 

 their lives, commence to form for themselves 

 coverings. They crawl on to a tender leaf, and. 



