State Agricultural Society. 
545 
They are so very small that the eye does not notice them unless the 
attention is turned toward them. They are then readily perceived, 
being much paler than the leaf of the cabbage or the Swedish 
turnip. To the eye they appear like little pale yellow grains pro¬ 
jecting out from the surface of tire leaf, more high than thick. A 
seed of Timothy grass laid upon the leaf beside one of these eggs is 
found to be three or four times larger than the egg. They are white 
when newly laid and acquire a yellow tinge afterward. 
When examined with a magnifying glass, they are found to be 
cylindrical and shaped like a sugar loaf, with the end which is glued 
to the leaf cut squarely off and the opposite end tapered to a point 
with a small portion of the apex cut squarly oli. Their surface is 
glossy and beautifully sculptured, being fluted or ribbed lengthwise, 
with intervening grooves, and transversely it is closely and evenly 
striated with exceedingly line impressed lines. One of these eggs, of 
which I carefully count the number of the ribs, has twelve only. 
The length is 0.045, and it is about four times as long as thick. 
The eggs hatch in about a week after they are laid, the inclosed 
worm eating an opening through the shell of sufficient size to enable 
it to crawl out therefrom. The evacuated egg shell is whitish and 
translucent, the elevated ribs appearing as slender opaque white lines. 
A worm which I watched as it came out of the shell measured 0.065 
in length. It was glossy and pale, tinged slightly with yellowish. 
Its body was slightly tapered from before backward, its sutures 
marked by transverse constricted lines, the intervening segments 
being roundly elevated. The head was a little thicker than the body 
and clothed with fine black hairs, the body having finer whitish 
hairs. 
The first act of the worm is to eat the shell of the egg from which 
it has been hatched. It first gnaws an opening on one side from the 
top nearly to the base, and then very slowly nibbles the sides of this 
opening, and the base of the shell, until it is so cleanly consumed 
that no indications of the spot where it was placed remain. In the 
instance observed, the worm was occupied five hours in eating its 
shell. When this is accomplished it remains at rest for a few hours. 
Its second act is to weave a mat or carpet to give it a more secure 
foothold upon the leaf. Applying its month to the surface of the 
leaf and moving it from side to side, it spins therefrom a thread of 
silk of most extreme fineness, which it fastens to the surface, crossing 
it in every direction, until it forms a thin film, which to the eye 
appears like a small glossy spot, very visible in a particular reflection 
[Ag.] 09 
