158 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
'Jl<>. Loekwunu manteo Doubleday {Utterocampa subalbicans Grotej. 
This species ranges from Maine to Texas. During 1880a threat amount 
of damage was done to the foliage of oak forests in at least two counties 
of Arkansas by this worm, which appeared in immense numbers in Jan- 
uary. The following account is taken from Professor Comstock's re- 
port (Agricultural Report, 1880) : 
There are probably two broods of the variable caterpillar in the course of the sea- 
son, although but one, the fall brood, seems to have been noticed. The moths Appear 
in the latter part of April or in early May, and between that time and late Septem- 
ber, when the principal damage is done by the worms, there is abundant time for two 
broods of caterpillars. 
In the District of Columbia for the last two years these larvae have been noticed very 
abundantly upon oak, hawthorn, and basswood, and doubtless feed upon other plants. 
In late September they had reached their full size and entered the ground, where, 
as we gather from Mrs. Thomas's letter, they lie most of the winter before transforming. 
The most obvious remedy for the injuries of this insect is the destruction of the 
larvae by burning the leaves upon the ground in the latter part of September, just as 
thf larva' are dropping from the trees. This could probably be done in most places 
without danger to the forest and without injury to the mast. 
Should the damage done by the worms be sufficiently great to warrant the expense 
of trap lanterns to be used in May to destroy the moths, undoubtedly their numbers 
could be greatly lessened. For description of trap lanterns, with remarks upon their 
use, see page 330 of the report for 1879 (Comstock). 
Professor Riley sends us the following notes on its habits and food 
plants : 
Two larvae of a Notodonta were found feeding on oak and persimmon in Virginia, 
June 18, 1882. Another one was found June 20, also in Virginia, feeding on walnut ; 
and two more July 19, feeding on oak. (It also feeds on the white, post, aid laurel 
oak, and linden). One of the first found larva spun up between leaves July 19, and 
another one pupated on the surface of the ground July 21. The first moth issued 
August 5 and the other one August 12. 
Larvae of a second brood were again fouud August 30 feeding on apple and black 
birch, and another full grown one September 3, feeding on persimmon. 
October 14, 1870: S. S. Rathvon describes it as injurious to the linden trees, 
stripping them and going from one tree to another in the village of Lititz, near Lan- 
caster, Pa. They went into the ground about the 1st of September. The specimen 
he sent had fifteen large Tachina-tly eggs attached transversely across the end and 
third joints. The white margin to the black stripe was missing, and the dark pur- 
ple dorsal band extends to stigmata on joints 6 and 9 and to subdorsum on 4 and 
11 (box 3, No. 29), also a variety in box 3, No. 53. 
October 17, 1870: Bolter found 2 under oak leaves, both of them like that I found 
on oak October 2, 1870. 
April 30, 1871, one has issued from an exotic oak in Shaw's gardens. The markings 
are much more diffused, with a large whitish discal spot ou primaries. That marked 
4.-> x from burr oak — Muhleman, issued May 2."). 1-71. It is a variety and perfectly de- 
ceptive like X unicornis, taking the same tubular position. 
Very abundant in 1873. October 12. leaves falling, obtained many from post oak. 
Three most persistent forms blown a (4 in cage 12) b (11 iu cage 11) c (1 in cage 10). 
July 6, 1-7 1: The imagines have been issuing very irregularly. To-day I sieved 
the cages and especially 17. in wnich there were a number of all three forms. They 
now are all alike, and the head is the only characteristic part. All the color is 
gone from the body, which is now of a uniform Paris green more or leas mottled 
