STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
377 
CUERRY. LEAVES- 
The Cecropia emperor moth, No. 33. Two young worms 
which I placed on a garden cherry fed freely thereon, remaining 
till they were full grown, and I doubt not this species sometimes 
occurs naturally upon this tree. 
80. Promethea emperor moth, Attacus Promethea, Drury. (Lepidoptera. 
Bombycidm.) 
In August, a large cylindrical, or whfin at rest a tapering pale 
greenish-yellow worm coated with a white bloom except at each 
end, with six rows of black dots or small prickles, the two upper 
ones on the second or third rings larger, resembling little horns 
of a bright red color like sealing wax, and on top of the ring for¬ 
ward of the last a single bright sulphur yellow protuberance; 
forming its cocoon inside of a rolled leaf the stem of which is tied 
to the limb with silken threads; the moth coming from it the last 
of June, its wings measuring from 3.60 to 4.40, sooty black, in 
the female brownish red, bordered behind with drab gray in which 
is a wavy black line having forward of it on the hind wings a 
row of round black spots, in the female deep red, the inner ones 
more or less united. 
As Dr. Harris (Treatise, page 300) mentions the cocoons of this 
insect as sometimes occurring on the cherry it will be inferred 
that it feeds upon the leaves of this tree. And I introduce this 
species here, to observe that I have reason to think the statements 
which have hitherto been made respecting the vegetation on which 
this insect subsists, are perhaps erroneous, writers having proba¬ 
bly taken it for granted that it fed upon the trees on which they 
have found its cocoons. This is a subject of more than ordinary 
importance, since it has been shown upon a preceding page that 
this moth and the Cecropia are most intimately related to the 
Arrindy silk worm; and further experiments should be insti¬ 
tuted to ascertain whether the silk of these moths of our own 
country does not possess similar durability and strength with that 
of the East India worm, and whether these insects are not suscep¬ 
tible of being turned to a valuable account. 
All the statements hitherto published' point to the sassafras as 
the tree on which the larvm of the Promethea moth chiefly sub¬ 
sist. Now for fifteen years past a sassafras has been growing in 
