416 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 
But this insect is not entirely limited to trees of the cherry 
and apple kind. I have seen its eggs placed upon the witch 
hazel ( Hamamelis ), and the caterpillars from them when nearly 
mature, appeared as thrifty and well fed as those upon the apple 
trees. Three small nests, each containing about two dozen 
worms, were once seen upon a small beach tree. On willows 
numbers of these caterpillars may be seen every year, when they 
are nearly mature; and on tieitag a cherry twig, containing a 
nest of worms but two or three days old, to the limb of a yellow 
willow, they were found to grow as thriftily as those in other sit¬ 
uations. The poplars, at least our indigenous species, appear to 
be equally congenial to them. And the white oak, the leaves of 
which are small and tender when the caterpillars are nearly full 
grown, they feed upon freely. The black or quercitron oak 
seems unadapted to them. The young worms of a nest tied to 
this tree languished and after a time all died; a nest of half 
grown worms ceased to advance further in size, and finally the 
more robust individuals appeared to have abandoned the tree, 
and the remainder perished. Nests of worms when half grown 
were placed upon the lilac, the syringa (Philadelphus coronarius) 
and the striped dogwood ( Viburnum Jlcerifolium ). In each of 
these instances the nests were forsaken by the worms within a 
day or two. A nest of worms newly hatched and too young to 
migrate elsewhere, was placed upon the garden currant, and 
another upon the alder ( Alnus ). In each of these instances the 
worms sustained themselves upon the leaves but made scarcely 
any advancement. When the caterpillars on other trees were 
mature these had not attained a third their size. They however 
all continued in their nests, feeding slightly upon the foliage 
around them, until the period for spinning their cocoons had 
nearly expired. They then suddenly dispersed themselves and 
probably all perished, being too small and weak to construct 
their cocoons. The fact shows that animal life may for a long 
time be sustained upon food which is so unpalatable and so lit¬ 
tle nutritious to the individual that no growth or development 
can take place. 
Like other insects, this is much more numerous in particular 
years. This fact has been noticed from the earliest times. We 
