39*2 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
show any signs of decay until the worm is about fully grown, when 
it wiltfl and is past recovery. About a month alter the worin is 
hatched it crawls just under the surface of the ground, fastens a little 
earth together around itself by a Blight web, and changes to a chrysalis 
of a very light mahogany-brown color three-fourths of an inch long, 
the moth appearing early in September. 
Larva. — Dull-colored, with wart-like spots: livid or purplish brown; darker 
before than behind, though varying much as to depth of shading. 
The moth. — Fore-wings lilac-gray, speckled with minute yellow dots, with a dis- 
tinct white band running across them. Expanse of wings, 3o' nm . 
AFFECTING THE LEAF-BUDS. 
20. The maple-bud beetle. 
Plat ijcer us quercus Weber. 
Order Coleopteka ; family Luc \nidj:. 
This beetle was noticed May 6 by Mr. Harrington gnawing holes 
in the center of the leaf buds, where, hidden within, it feasts on the 
growing leaves. "In one instance a pair of beetles (male and female) 
were found in the same cavity. I have since found the beetles upon 
the leaves of various trees, and the larvae in old logs and stumps of 
elm, etc." (Rep. Ent. Soc. Ontario, 1887, 31.) 
The beetle. — In Platycerus the eyes are almost entire, while the sixth ventral seg- 
ment is visible (it is not so in Dorcus, whose eyes are hollowed out). Body flat, 
black (reddish beneath in the female), with sometimes a greenish hue ; antenna* with 
the terminal joints lamellate : while the jaws of the male are long and like pincers, 
those of the female being shorter. Length, 10 lum . (Horn.) 
AFFECTING THE LEAVES. 
21. The spiny maple worm. 
Dryoeampa rubicunda (Fabricius). 
Order Lepidoptera : family Bombycid.e. 
Sometimes nearly stripping soft maples of their leaves, large smooth worms longi- 
tudinally striped with pale and darker green lines, and recognizable by two anteriorly 
projecting black horns on the second segment behind the head, and transforming to 
a pale, oeher-yellowish, thick-bodied moth, tinged, especially ou the fore wings, with 
a rosy hue, and expanding a little over 2 inches. 
Although in the Eastern States this insect, especially the moth, is 
not common, yet we have observed it as far east as Brunswick, Me., where 
it feeds on the maple, the moth there appearing the middle of June: iu 
the Western States, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas, it proves during 
certain years very destructive, entirely or nearly stripping the soft or 
swamp and sometimes the silver maple of its leaves, and discouraging 
people from planting this tree along roadsides. It is known to feed on 
the oak. 
