304 FORTT-FOURTH RePORT ON THE StATE MuSEUM 



is occasionally exceedingly destructive in Germany to the forests, 

 which they completely strip of their foliage." 



While, therefore, there would seem to be no occasion for alarm, the 

 insect is sufficiently injurious to move the people of Medford and the 

 vicinity to prompt and energetic action to arrest its spread and exter- 

 minate it while in its present limited locality. It is believed that it 

 can be done without severe labor or a large expenditure of money. 

 How it may best be done has been pointed out in a special bulletin 

 recently prepared by the able entomologist of the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College, Professor C. H. Fernald, and published by the 

 Hatch Experiment Station, under date of November, 1889. This 

 bulletin contains description and figure of the insect in its different 

 stages, and narrates about all that is known of its appearance in this 

 country, with directions how and when to fight it. Copies of it may 

 probably be obtained by those interested by addressing the station at 

 Amherst, Mass. — (Country Gentleman, of January 23, 1890.) 



Several notices of this insect are contained in vols, ii and iii of 

 Insect Life. In the former, pp. 208-211, may be found something of 

 its European habits, the plants on which it is known to feed, and a 

 list compiled by Mr. L. O. Howard, of twenty-four species of para- 

 sites which attack it. No detailed account of its observed habits and 

 transformations in this country have been given us. Of a small colony 

 reared by me on apple leaves in 1890, I have only the following 

 memoranda: The first males emerged on July 26th and the last August 

 7th. The females were disclosed between August 1st and August 

 13th. From six larvse, the pupation of which took place on July 13tJi 

 and 14th, two males and four females appeared on August 1st, giving a 

 pupal period of eighteen and nineteen days. 



From other lar\9e obtained in 1889, a male emerged a month earlier 

 than the above, viz., on June 26th, and a female on July 17th. 



Spilosoma Virginica (Fabr.). 



The Yellow Woolly Bear. 



I find a worm attacking my rhubarb, zinnias, calendulas, etc., on the 

 under side of the leaf. It is from one inch to one inch and one- 

 fourth in length, about one-eighth in diameter, and has long hairs on 

 all sides of its body. Its color is a yellowish-white. It is easily cap- 

 tured, as it is slow in its movements, but is a rapid eater. It has eight 

 feet on the under side of its body, about in the center ; with these 

 and with small points at the extremities it moves along. — [E. J. Humes, 

 Providence, E. I. 



Judging from the description given, the insect is the caterpillar of 



one of the " woolly bears " as they are commonly known from the long 



