III. — Studies on the Life-history of some Bombycine Moths, with 

 Notes on the Setae and Spines of Certain Species. 



BY ALPHEUS S. PACKARD. 

 Read March 13, 1893. 



The attempt has been made in this and other articles, so far as 

 material and opportunity have allowed, to describe the transforma- 

 tions of some of our Bombycine moths, in the light of the recent very 

 suggestive and stimulating work of Weismann, entitled " Studies 

 in the Theories of Descent" (1882). Until within a few years the 

 majority of descriptions of caterpillars have been prepared simply 

 for the purpose of identification, or for taxonomical uses, and with- 

 out reference to the philosophic or general zoological significance 

 of these changes. The transformations of some of the European 

 Sphingidse have been very carefully worked out by Weismann, 

 and also by Poulton, but it is believed that the life-histories of, the 

 lower, more generalized Bombyces, especially of the Notodontidae, 

 Ceratocampidse, Saturniidfe, Hemileucidfe, Cochliopodidfe, and La- 

 siocampidae, will bring out still more striking and valuable results, 

 inasmuch as they, or forms near them now extinct, are believed to 

 be closely similar to the stem-forms from which all the higher Lepi- 

 doptera have probably been evolved. 



The aim therefore in such studies should be — 



1. To treat the larvae as though they were adult, independent 



animals, and to work out their specific and generic as well 

 as family characters. 



2. To trace the origin of mimetic and protective characters, and 



to ascertain the time of larval life when they are assumed, 

 involving — 



3. The history of the development of the more specialized setaj 



(hairs), spines, tubercles, lines, spots, and other markings.^ 



' Besides the work of Weismann, compare also the suggestive paj^ers of E. 

 B. Poulton, in Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, 1884-88, 

 and my papers : Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, xxiv-v, 

 1890-91. 



Annals N. Y. Acad. Sci., VIII, May, 1893.— 4 



