786 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
OAK. TRUNK. 
this head. Fortunately this insect is not a common one. If it were so, 
few of the oaks in our forests could escape being ruined by it. From the 
specimens sent me from the southern and south-western states, I infer it to 
be more common there than it is with us. And we learn from Boisduval 
that it also occurs in California. 
The European analogue of this insect is popularly termed the Goat or 
the Goat-moth, this designation haring been bestowed upon it in conse¬ 
quence of the strong odor which it exhales, resembling that of the goat. 
Locust goat-moth might therefore be the most suitable common name for 
our insect, were it not that it is destitute of the odor alluded to, no per¬ 
ceptible scent being given forth either by the larva, or by the moth, even 
when the latter has newly burst from its pupa shell. I therefore deem the 
name Locust Cossus the most appropriate by which to designate this insect 
in common conversation. 
This moth pertains to a small group or family named Hepialidcr, which 
is intermediate in its characters between the twilight or crepuscular moths 
and the nocturnal, and is usually arranged at the head of the latter in 
systematic works, preceding the large species forming the Bombyx family. 
The Hepialidce are distinguished by having the spiral tongue, the palpi or 
feelers, and the spurs of the hind legs wholly wanting or very small. And 
the genus Cossus may be known by its tapering antennae, which are as long 
as the thorax and pectinated or comb-like in both sexes, the branches or 
teeth being thick and short and continued to the tips of these organs. 
Authors usually state further that there is but a single row of these teeth 
to the antennae ; but in this species there are two rows. The name Cossus 
which this genus bears, Pliny states was the name anciently given by the 
Romans to a worm found under the bark of the oak, which they were 
accustomed to fatten by feeding it meal, and to cat, it being esteemed a 
great delicacy. 
Our moth comes abroad as already stated in June and the fore part of 
July. It flies only in the night time, remaining at rest during the day, 
clinging to the trunks of trees, its gray color being so similar to that of 
the bark that it usually escapes notice. In repose its wings are held 
together in the shape of a roof, covering the hind body. From observing 
her motions in confinement, I think the female does not insert her eggs 
into the bark, but merely drops them into the cracks and crevices upon its 
outer surface. They are coated with a glutinous matter which immediately 
dries and hardens on exposure to the air, whereby they adhere to the spot 
where they touch ; and if the short two-jointed ovipositor be not fully 
exserted as the egg is passed through it, so as to carry the egg beyond the 
hair-like scales with which the body is clothed, some of these touchiug 
adhere to it, their attachment to the body being so slight. 
The eggs are of a broad oval form, and about half the size of a grain of 
wheat, being the tenth of an inch in length and three-fourths as thick, of a 
