27 
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 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 ? 
N. EL, 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 ate 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 Noctuidse 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. 
We 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 Noctuidae, 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. 
( Gryptolechia 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 No. 3 of the Division of Entomology (U. S. Depart- 
ment Agriculture, p. 25.) 
The larva of the present species (originally described by Clemens as 
Psilocorsis quercicella) was said by that author* to bind the leaves of 
oaks together in August and September (in Pennsylvania) and to pick 
out the parenchyma between the network of veins ; to weave a slight 
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, 18H0. See also Clemens’s Tineina of North 
America, edited by H. T. Stainton, p. 149. 
