State Agricultvral Society. 
527 
seen suspended from the end of the same stalk or from the opposite 
sides of a twig. In thus imitating these tassels of the immature 
flowers of the alder so perfectly in such a number of particulars, what 
a remarkable display of instinct does this worm present! 
If the bush in which they are suspended be jarred or they are 
otherwise alarmed they draw themselves upward, bending their 
bodies into angular shapes. 
The worms continue to feed six or eight weeks, coming to their 
full size about the middle of September. They then descend from 
the bush and crawl under fallen leaves or other rubbish, and there 
spin around themselves a network of threads with open meshes, to 
the outer surface of which, small pebbles, loose lumps of dirt and 
fragments of leaves are fastened ; and in this slight cocoon it takes on 
its pupa form. 
The pupa is closely invested by the cocoon, which is oval, half an 
inch long and 0.20 thick. The pupa is chestnut red, its rings densely 
and confluently punctured, all the posterior ones having a broad smooth 
hind border. The wing-sheaths are minutely wrinkled and rugose 
from short, irregular, strongly impressed lines, those around the 
border being more even, parallel and at right angles to the edge. 
The tip terminates in two slender black thorn-like spines, which are 
hooked at their ends. 
The insect lies dormant, inclosed in its cocoon during nine months 
of the year. It begins to come abroad in its perfect form upon the 
last days of June, new individuals continuing to hatch and come 
forth until the middle of July. Upon the same night on which they 
issue from their cocoons the sexes pair, and the female deposits her 
eggs upon the following day. They are probably laid in a cluster, 
glued upon the under side of a leaf of the lilac. Seventy-live eggs 
were counted that had been deposited by one female. 
The eggs are smooth and glossy, of a short, cylindrical form, 
with rounded ends. They are 0.025 long and two-thirds as thick. 
They vary remarkably in their color, being at first pale bluish or yel¬ 
lowish green and changing in a day or two to pale reddish. This 
color gradually deepens to coral red, bright and shining. They then 
grow darker, and just before hatching are deep liver brown. They 
hatch two weeks after they are laid. The evacuated shells are white 
and translucent. 
The moth or miller varies in width across its extended wings from 1.25 to 1.35, the 
larger specimens being females. The head is more than twice as broad as long, the 
large, protuberant eyes occupying each side and constituting more than half its total 
width. It Is covered with rusty, yellowish scales. The palpi or feelers project out 
