186 Forty-second Report on the State Museum. [44] 



associated in many minds with snakes; hence, children in infancy are 

 taught that everything that creeps must be avoided, and every snake, 

 however beautiful, innocent, and in movement the embodiment of 

 grace, must be killed. Such ignorance is to be deplored. It results 

 in the overlooking of much that is worthy of admiration and study, 

 tends to the development of cruelty towards the lower forms in nature, 

 and is often the occasion of much unnecessary fear and alarm. For 

 example: A newspaper account that obtained wide circulation not long 

 ago, and was doubtless believed by many, made of one of our harmless 

 caterpillars, the common tomato-worm (of which hundreds have been 

 handled by me, without having experienced even the slightest nip 

 from their jaws), a creature more venomous and more to be dreaded 

 than the rattlesnake. If disturbed, it would inflict a mortal sting 

 with the horn on its tail, and it was capable of ejecting a venom to a 

 distance of several feet, which was certain death to whomever it struck. 



I have no personal knowledge of the stinging power of the hag- 

 moth caterpillar. It certainly can not exist to any great extent, for it 

 is unprovided with such urticating spines as are found in Lagoa cris- 

 pata, and are so conspicuous in Hyperchiria Io and Hemileuca Maia. 

 I do not recall any spines or hairs that would serve the purpose, but 

 Mr. Hubbard, who is more familiar with it, states that they occur 

 among the feathery brown hairs with which the "fleshy hooks" (arms) 

 are clothed, as longer, black, stinging hairs. 



Miss Emily L. Morton, of New Windsor, N. Y., who probably has 

 had more experience with the caterpillar than anyone else, has written 

 in reply to inquiry made : " Although I have handled dozens of them 

 every year, for some time past, in all stages and of all ages, I have 

 never yet discovered any indications of a power to sting — such as is 

 possessed by Lagoa crispata (in my experience the very worst of all 

 stinging insects), Empretia stimulea, or even the somewhat painful 

 though only momentary sting of Euclea querceti or Parasa Chloris." 

 The testimony of Mr. Herman Strecker is to the same effect ; he has 

 written of it : " This little worm has a Victor-Hugo devil-fish sort of 

 look, but can not sting, and is perfectly harmless." 



Its Degree of Abundance. 

 The caterpillar does not often come under notice of the field col- 

 lector, and from the comparatively few examples of the moths that 

 are to be found in our collections, it may properly be regarded as a 

 rare insect in the northern States. Dr. Harris records an instance in 

 which, on the testimony of an agricultural friend, " a swarm of these 

 caterpillars appeared on a cherry tree and nearly stripped it of its 



