27 



Professor Riley's notes show that he found the larvae at Kirk wood, 

 Mo., in May, 1872; that they began to spin their cocoons May 29; and 

 that the moths began to emerge June 1.1. On June 17 eggs were found. 



We have found the larva on the Willow at Brunswick, Me., August 

 26, when it was nearly fully grown. It is easily recognized, since it is one 

 of the few Noctuid caterpillars to be found on the Willow, and may be 

 recognized by its pale green hue and the yellow lateral line as well as 

 the yellowish sutures between the body segments. A chrysalis beaten 

 out of a Willow tree during the last week in August disclosed the moth 

 about the 12th of September. Another chrysalis was found at Jackson 

 X. BL, during the second week in September, the moth appearing Sep- 

 tember 14. The larva had sewed together four or five willow leaves at 

 the end of a terminal shoot, and the cavity thus formed was lined with 

 a thin but dense whitish cocoon in which the pupa was situated with 

 the head upwards, and firmly held in place by the hooks on the abdom- 

 inal spine. The moth hibernates, appearing in May as soon as the 

 leaves are unfolded, and we see no grounds for supposing that there 

 is more than a single brood of caterpillars or of moths. The chrysalis 

 is quite unlike that of rnostNoctuidre which transform in the earth, and 

 has a simple blunt spine. The cremaster or spine of the present species 

 is much like that of those Geometrids which spin a cocoon. 



^Ye thus have an interesting departure from the usual structure and 

 habits of a numerous family of moths, the end of the pupa being spe- 

 cially adapted for a residence in a cocoon to prevent its being shaken 

 out of its exposed pupal abode. Like all tree-feeding Noctuidse, the 

 caterpillar is well protected from observation by its style of coloration : 

 in the present case the pale green assimilating it to the leaves among 

 which it feeds. 



THE BROWN CRYPTOLECHIA. 



(Cryptolechia quercicella Clemens.) 



The leaves of the Oak and, as we have found the past season, the 

 Aspen, are often bound together by a rather large flattened Tineid cat- 

 erpillar, larger in size than most larvae of the family to which it belongs. 

 It is of about the size of the caterpillar of another less common species 

 of the same genus (C. schlagenella) whose habits we have already de 

 scribed in Bulletin Xo. 3 of the Division of Entomology (U. S. Depart- 

 ment Agriculture, p. 25.) 



The larva of the present species (originally described by Clemens as 

 Psihcor.sis quercicella) was said by that author* to bind the leaves oi 

 oaks together in August and September (in Pennsylvania) and to pick 

 out the parenchyma between the network of veins ; to weave a slighl 

 cocoon between two leaves, appearing as a moth in March and April, 

 Our observations confirm the accuracy of Clemens's observations. In 



*Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Phil., June, Ht50. See also Clemens's Tiiicina of North 

 America, edited by II. T. Stainton, p. 149. 



