STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
379 
CHERRY. LEAVES. 
Having finished feeding, the worms invariably repair to other 
trees having tough leathery leaves which will form a thick sub¬ 
stantial mantle around the cocoon, and having short stems that 
can readily be tied to the twigs from which they grow. We can¬ 
not but admire the intelligence which they manifest in this proce¬ 
dure. Authors mention the sassafras, cherry, poplar, Azalea, 
Cephalanthus, snow-drop ( Halesia ) and bay, as the trees and 
shrubs on which the cocoons occur; but in this district it selects 
the lilac in preference to any of these. Few winters pass but 
that some of these cocoons may be seen on the lilacs in all our 
yards, and sometimes fifty or more will be observed upon a single 
bush. In the city of Albany they are equally as common upon 
the lilacs as in the surrounding country. But as the other insects 
of this family feed upon several different trees and shrubs, it is not 
probable that this is confined to one kind of food. Being found, 
however, in Eastern New-York, so uniformly if not exclusively 
upon the ash, and its cocoons upon the lilac, it is remarkable 
that neither of these trees has ever been mentioned by writers, in 
connection with this most interesting and beautiful moth. 
81. Io emperor moth, Satumia To, Fab. (Lepidoptera. Bombycidae.) 
In August, a thick apple green worm, 2.50 long, covered with 
clusters of prickles having black tips and stinging like nettles if 
touched, and along each side an orange or brick red stripe freckled 
with white dots and edged on its lower side by a white stripe; 
forming a cocoon on the ground under dead leaves; the moth ap¬ 
pearing in June, its hind wings bright yellow', their inner margin 
purplish red and on their middle a large black eye-like spot hav¬ 
ing a pale blue centre in which is a white streak; the fore wings 
yellow in the male, purplish brown in the female. Width 2.70 
to 3.50. I have met with this on the wild black cherry and on 
the thorn. From six to nine worms often occur upon the same 
tree. They commonly eat all the leaves from the end of particular 
limbs, leaving only a short stump of the leaf stalk. See Harris’s 
Treatise, p. 304. 
82. Misippus butterfly, Limcnitus Misippus, Fab. (Lepidoptera, Nym- 
pbalidse.) 
In June and July, a thick bodied w r orm 1.75 long, olive green 
Varied with white, the second ring humped and with two long 
