THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 37 



THE LARVAE OF THE CLISIOCAMPA. 



BY HARRISON G DYAR, ROXtURY, MASS. 



As has been shown by Mr. R H. Stretch, the North American species 

 of Clisiocampa are best separated by larval characters, and this paper 

 will deal chiefly with them. I refer to Mr. Stretch's paper in volume I. 

 of Papilio, which contains about all that has been known regarding the 

 species. 



There are two pretty well defined groups. The first contains C. 

 disstria, C. erosa and C. thoracica, and the second the remaining species. 

 The first are not nest-spinning species ; the larvae rest in bunches on the 

 trunk without covering. The second, with the possible exception of 

 C. constricta, of which I have seen no nest, and of C. incurva, the larva 

 of which is unknown, are all nest-spinning. Their webs are formed in 

 forks of the smaller branches or twigs, as in the well-known C. americana 

 of the Atlantic States. The Eastern region, from the eastern slope of 

 the Rockies to the Atlantic, has two species, one belonging to each 

 group, namely, disstria and americana. The Pacific Northwest, from the 

 Cascade Mountains to the Pacific, has also two, one to each group, viz., 

 erosa and pluvialis ; but the latter, which takes the place of americana, 

 is not its representative, as erosa is of disstria. The central arid region 

 has but one species at present known to me, unless incurva, described 

 from Arizona, be found throughout the range of fragilis. C. fragiiis is 

 the only species not a tree feeder, and this habit has evidently been 

 induced by the absence of deciduous trees in its habitat. California has 

 four species, all endemic, unless it be that thoracica is the same as erosa 

 of Oregon. Prof. Rivers's description recalls erosa most vividly, but he 

 makes no mention of the broad subdorsal blue band so distinct in the 

 larva of erosa. 

 §i. Group disstria. 

 Clisiocampa disstria, Hiibner. 



1797- -Smith & Abbot, Lep. Ins.,Ga., n. 117, tab. LIX. (as P. netistria.) 

 1816 — Hiibner, Verz. Bck. Sehm., p. 192, No. 1975. 

 1S89— Hy. Edw., Bull. 35, U. S. N. M. (26 references). 



sylvatica, Harris. 



1841 — Harris, R. Ins., 271. 



drupacearum, Boisduval. 



1869 — Boisd. , Ann. Ent. Soc. Belg., xii., 82. 



