16 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
few beech trees adjacent to the defoliated trees, lost most of the 
leaves on the upper branches. 
Life history. The insect passes the winter as the dark brown 
pupa described above. The pupae are readily found in the 
vicinity of infested trees, within an inch or so of the surface 
of the soil. Sometimes they are so abundant that 10 or 15 may 
be taken in a square foot, though this segregation is probably 
due to the condition of the ground at tine time the worms are 
seeking shelters for hibernation. 
There appear to be two broods of this insect in Pennsylvania 
and that latitude. Melsheimer, writing to Harris from Dover, 
southern Pennsylvania in 1842, states that there are two broods 
of larvae in that section, as he had taken caterpillars toward the 
end of July and again many hundreds about the last of Septem- 
ber. There appears to be but one generation in the North, the 
moths having been recorded by Professor Packard as appear- 
ing about the middle of June. The eggs, according to Dr Riley, 
are deposited in batches of 30 or more on the under side of the 
leaves, a single moth laying as many as 142. The young larvae 
hatch therefrom in 8 or g days and about a month later the 
caterpillars attain full growth, desert the trees and enter the soil 
to undergo their final transformations; the worms pupating in 
midsummer in sections where there are two generations, remain 
in this stage about 14 to 16 days. 
Natural enemies. This species is subject to attack by several 
PEMASIONS masecis, IDr INiley records kirOnmtina iremeinit 
Wut, IBElywoSia Ditaserata abr, and Limineria 
fugitiva Say as parasites of this form. He also alludes to a 
record of an egg parasite, probably either a Telenomus or a 
Trichogramma having been obtained by Mr William Saunders. 
It is very probable that a number of our native bifds are very 
efficient destroyers of this leaf feeder. Mr Edward Willbrant 
of Center Berlin, Rensselaer co., N. Y., had several acres entirely 
defoliated by this pest, and one of his sons informed the writer 
that crows had been quite abundant in the infested woodland 
after the caterpillars became numerous. It is very probable 
that these birds are of considerable service in destroying the 
caterpillars, particularly after the latter have attained some size. 
Remedial measures: ‘This leaf feeder is easily controlled on 
more valued shade treés, by thorough spraying with an arsenical 
poison, such for example, as arsenate of lead. Obviously these 
