426 The Moths and Butterflies 



dish or pinkish tinge here and there. The larva of H. maia feeds on oak; 

 it is brownish black with a lateral yellow stripe, and has large branching 

 spines over the body which sting severely. 



In Plate VI, Fig. 4, is shown in proper color and pattern a bizarre 

 moth, Pseudohazis eglanlerina, not uncommon in the Rocky Mountains, which 



FIG. 611. Larva of To emperor-moth, Automeris io. (After Dickerson; natural size.) 



we may call the clown. An allied species, P. shastaensis, similarly marked 

 and colored, is found on the Pacific slope, and a third species, P. hera, with 

 pale yellowish- white ground-color in the wings instead of purplish red, occurs 

 in the region between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. 



Two great moths, the imperial (PL VI, Fig. 2) and the regal walnut- 

 moth (Fig. 612), are the most impressive of a subgroup of the Saturniina 

 called the Ceratocampidas. They are all short-bodied and hairy and show 

 for colors exclusively rich warm browns and soft yellows, light purple and 

 rose. A curious structural characteristic of the family is the limiting of the 

 pectinations on the antennae of the male to the basal half of the antenna. 

 The regal walnut-moth, Citheronia regalis (Fig. 612), expands fully 5 inches, 

 has a rich brown ground-color on body and hind wings, with the fore wings 

 slaty gray with yellow blotches, and veins broadly marked out in red-brown. 

 The larva (Fig. 613), 4 to 5^ inches long, and yellowish brown, reddish 

 brown, or greenish, is distinguished from all other caterpillars by the great, 

 threatening, but harmless blue-black horns of the body; it feeds on butter- 

 nut, walnut, ash, pines, and other trees. Basilona imperialis, the imperial 

 moth, is as large as the regal walnut, but with ground-color of rich yellow, 

 overspread on base and outer part of fore wings and as a spot and band 

 on hind wings with soft brownish purple. The larva; when full-grown are 

 3 inches long, brown or greenish, thinly clothed with long whitish hairs, 

 and bear conspicuous spiny horns on the second and third thoracic segments. 

 They feed on hickory, oak, elm, maple, and other deciduous forest-trees, 

 as well as on spruce, pine, juniper, and hemlock. The larvae of both these 



