WILLOW CATERPILLARS. 569 
dorsal black stripe, with fascicles of straw-yellow hairs, which seem to be finely 
spinulated ; there are ten. warts on a segment in the middle of the body; the stiff 
yellow hairs are of nearly the same length and radiate quite regularly from the 
wart; a few of the hairs are black, from one to three in a fascicle; there are also 
a few slenderer hairs one-fourth to one-third as long as the body. Length, 40 mm . 
Before the last molt the head is green behind, and in front is a pale V-shaped 
mark, and the hairs are a little longer in proportion to the thickness of the body. 
24. The herald. 
Scoliopteryx libatrix (Linn.). 
(Larva. Plate v, fig. 4.) 
This fine moth, common to the New and Old World, is in England 
called "the Herald." Here, as well as in Europe, it feeds as a general 
rule upon the willow, but we are told by Mr. H. L. Clark that he has 
bred it from the wild cherry in Ehode Island. 
Its habits so far as they have been noticed are nearly the same as 
observed in Europe. Mr. Lintner, the State entomologist of New York, 
says that the caterpillar feeds on and pupates among some of the leaves 
drawn together by silken threads to which the pupa is attached by an anal 
spine. The fall brood remains in the pupa state from fifteen to twenty 
days. He bred a moth which emerged August 3, hence he thinks that 
there are probably two annual broods of this species, since he has taken 
it in the early part of May. In Illinois Mr. Ooquillett bred a larva which 
spun its cocoon August 23, while the moth appeared September 7. 
Professor Riley's notes show that he found the larvae at Kirkwood, 
Mo., in May, 1872 ; that they began to spin their cocoons May 29 ; and 
that the moths began to emerge June 11. On June 17 eggs were 
found. 
We have found the larva on the willow at Brunswick, Me., August 
26, when it was nearly full grown. It is easily recognized, since it is one 
of the few Noctuid caterpillars to be found on the willow, and may be 
known by its pale green hue and the yellow lateral line, as well as by 
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, 
N. H., 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 most Noctuidas which transform in the earth, and 
have a simple blunt spine. 
The cremaster or spine of the present species is much like that of 
those (ieometrids which spin a cocoon. We have thus an interesting 
