410 



LEPIDOPTEEA. 



The hop- vine Hepiolus has not yet been detected in Mas- 

 sachusetts ; but we have a much larger species, known to 

 me only in the moth state, which is the reason of my hav- 

 ing given the foregoing account of the preparatory stages 

 of a European species. This moth does not appear to have 

 been described. It is- named in my Catalogue of the In- 

 sects of Massachusetts, Hejriolus argenteo-maculatus (Fig. 

 202), the silver-spotted Hepiolus. Its body and wings are 



Fig. 202. 



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rather long. It is of an ashen-gray color ; the fore wings 

 are variegated with dusky clouds and bands, and have a 

 small triangular spot and a round dot of a silvery white color 

 near their base ; the hind wings are tinged with ochre-yellow 

 towards the tip. It expands two inches and three quarters. 

 A much larger specimen was found by Professor Agassiz 

 near Lake Superior.* 



The locust-tree, Robinia pseudacacia, is preyed upon by 

 three different kinds of wood-eaters or borers, whose un- 

 checked ravages seem to threaten the entire destruction and 

 extermination of this valuable tree within this part of the 

 United States. One of these borers is a little reddish cater- 

 pillar, whose operations are confined to the small branches 

 and to very young trees, in the pith of which it lives ; and 

 by its irritation it causes the twig to swell around the part 

 attacked. These swellings being spongy, and also perforated 



* See a figure of it in his " Lake Superior," pi. 7, fig. 6. 



