Report of the St.ite Entomologist. 175 



had fallen to five degrees above zero. With the exception of rising 

 somewhat with the sun, it continiied at that temperature for several 

 days. 



The larvse were found in a field six hundred feet in width, scattered 

 over that distance for about three hundred feet in length, at an aver- 

 age distance apart of perhaps two feet; bat in certain places, they lay 

 in great quantities and all alive. The field was covered, as well as all 

 of the surrounding country, with from one to two feet of snow and ice. 

 There was no manure in the field. 



On the following day I found that the greater part had disappeared, 

 and the few that were left were dead, and a number of crows were 

 busy in picking them up and eating them. 



I did not look for them beyond the space named, and am unable 

 therefore to say an^'thing abou^t the area over which they fell. 



Description of the Winter Caterpillar. 



One of the snow caterpillars received from Professor Penhallow was 

 fed on spinach leaves to maturity. It pupated May 13, but failed to 

 disclose the moth. The following notes were made of its appearance 

 when full-groAvn: 



Dorsum dull yellow, with numerous interrupted, crinkled, longi- 

 tudinal lines — the two dorsal ones, defining the mesial stripe, con- 

 tinuous; two black dots on the anterior portion of each segment 

 dorsally. Head small, less than one-half the breadth of the middle 

 segments, brownish, w^ith black reticulations, with two black lines over 

 its front, dividin^f to border the ^ — the latter pale; the four eyes 

 black; hairs long. Abdomen with a subdorsal dark green stripe, 

 paler at the sutures, bordered belovv^ with a narrower white one; a 

 broader substigmatal stripe just above the sj^iracles, traversed medially 

 with a paler line, and bordered by white; a pale green stripe between 

 this and the subdorsal above; below this a stigmatal pale yellow stripe 

 bearing the small oval black stigmata; ventral region watery-green; 

 posterior end of body quite tapering. Legs and prolegs jjale — the 

 latter with a black band outwardly at their base. Length of larva, 

 1.25 inch; breadth at widest, 0,23 inch. 



Its Midwinter Occurrence in Sullivan County, N. Y. 

 .A similar appearance of this caterpillar in midwinter, had been 

 brought to my notice tivo years previously through some newspaper 

 accounts of " a shower of yellow worms," that had followed a snow 

 storm at Liberty and at Stevensville, in Sullivan county, N. Y., on 

 December 27, 1881. After communicating with several persons in 

 search of some precise information of the phenomenon, I was so for- 

 tunate as to obtain what I desired from the gentleman who observed 

 the occurrence, and who was able to give an intelligent account of it — 



