no. i. BOMBYCINE MOTHS OF NORTH AMERICA— PACKARD. 147 



setae appear to be grouped into two lateral sets of about 8 or 9 each. The. two dorsal tubercles 

 on the ninth abdominal segment are wide apart and of the same size as those of the supra- 

 spiracular row; they bear 15 setae, arising as do those of all the other tubercles from minute 

 conical warts. 



Suranal plate very short and broad, scarcely half as long as broad, the end very blunt, as 

 in Hemileucid larvae generally; on each side near the end is a tubercle bearing about six to 

 eight spiniferous warts, and farther in toward the base on each side and situated in the large 

 central black spot is a minute tubercle bearing three setae. 



Body clothed with rather dense white hair-like setae; they are thickest on the sides, about 

 as long, some a little longer, than the tubercles are high. There is another set of remarkable 

 setae scattered sparingly especially on the sides of the body. They are long, slender, delicate, 

 finely spinulated setae, the spinules very slender and fine, and thrown off at an angle from the 

 main shaft, so that they are not exactly feather-like or plumose. 



The body is (in my formalin example) orange-red with numerous irregular dark spots all 

 over each segment, like the spots on a leopard, the interior pale bluish gray, and the black edge 

 bordered with pale gray or pearl color; there are about 15 such spots, some of them mere dots, on 

 each segment between the spiracle and the median tergal line. Along the body is an inter- 

 rupted broken line of similar median spots. Spiracles black. Anal legs rather small, as in other 

 Hemileucidae, triangular, the center black, with numerous warts. Thoracic legs chestnut red; 

 midabdominal legs with a black shining spot above each planta. 



Lieut. Col. Fawcett describes the larva thus: "Ground-color rufous with irregular pale 

 blue spots surrounded by a thin white line. On each somite a short tuft of black hairs, sur- 

 mounted by a tuft of longer and finer hairs of same color, and the first five and last somites 

 covered with short yellow hail's. Head, legs, and claspers brown." He states that the larva 

 "looks, through a microscope, like a piece of old chinaware in color," and adds that it "is one of 

 the most unpleasant larvae to handle that I have ever met with. The short black hairs on each 

 somite possess poisonous qualities, which produce on the hand a white rash akin to that pro- 

 duced by a bad stinging from nettles." 



Judging from Fawcett's figure I referred the larva to the Hemileucidae, but on receiving 

 the specimen he kindly sent me for examination I felt in doubt, as I could not see the two or 

 three long hairs arising from the tubercles. In all the Hemileucid larvae from America which 

 I have seen the tubercles extend into a more or less high spinulated spine; those of Holocera are 

 probably more primitive or generalized hi this respect than any Hemileucid larvae yet known 

 to me. 



At any rate the study of the larva of Holocera is of great interest as bearing on the diagnostic 

 features of the family and the value of the larval characters, which in this case are congruous 

 with those of the pupa, cocoon, and imago. The family characters of a median-sized head, 

 narrowing above, surface smooth, without granulations: large long antennae, a short broad, 

 not heavily tuberculated suranal plate, and anal legs of moderate size, are those which at once 

 separate the larvae from those of the Sphingicampidas (Citheroniinse, Agliinae, Bunaeinae), and 

 definitely establish the family rank of the Hemileucid as. 



The African genus Holocera differs a good deal in the tubercles, these being rounded conical, 

 not sending up a branching spine, the 10-20 spines (much more numerous, three to four times, 

 than in any Bunaeinas) all arising separately from the crown of the tubercle. This sort of tubercle 

 may either be a generalized or primitive condition, or it maybe the result of reduction or extreme 

 specialization, as the moth in the shape of the wings and their markings appears to be. 



That the insect is also a Hemileucid is shown by the very poisonous spines and by the fact 

 that the larva spins a cocoon. The pupa is not yet known. 



Cocoon round, cylindrical, formed of its [larval] hairs. Food plant, oak, also feeds on the 

 jasmine (Jasminum pubigerum, D. Don). 



Geographical distribution. — Durban, Natal (Fawcett,, Queckett). 



