372 Report of the Entomologists of the 



the body is black. Plate XXXIII, Figs. 1 and 2 are from photo- 

 graphs of the caterpillars, natural size. 



The following descriptions of the larva in its various stages of 

 growth were written by Dr. Asa Fitch, 9 the first State Entomolo- 

 gist of New York. No more complete descriptions are necessary 

 and hence they are appended here : 



Larva.— The larvae, when they first coine from the eggs, are 0.08 in. 

 long, slightly tapering, of a black color, the under side and legs pallid, 

 and they are slightly clothed with soft gray hairs. After they commence 

 feeding, they show a pale ring at each of the joints, and a faint pale stripe 

 lengthwise along the back upon each side of its middle, and another low 

 down upon each side. The head is deep black and some deep black dots 

 may be discovered upon the body, from which the hairs arise. When 

 they are a few days old and before the first moulting, they have increased 

 to double their original size, and show some ash-gray or whitish lines 

 more or less distinctly, running lengthwise upon the back and sides. 



After the first molt it is 0.20 in. in length, of a dark gray color, with 

 two ashy-white lines along the back, and two along each side, the space 

 above the upper lateral line having a large blackish spot on each seg- 

 ment. The hind edges of the segments and the under side of the body 

 is also pale ash-gray, the head velvety black, and the body is clothed 

 with numerous ash-gray hairs of different lengths. 



After the second molt it is half an inch in length, and nearly cylin- 

 dric, the head being scarcely any broader than the body. It is now black 

 and hairy, the neck with numerous long hairs directed forward and 

 overhanging the head, which is velvety black. A broad dull stripe ex- 

 tends along the back and a narrower wavy brighter blue one along each 

 side, and several short curved blue lines between them. 



After the third molt it has reached three-fourths of an inch in length, 

 with yellowish white hairs, and stripes, etc., much the same as before. 



After the fourth molt it is about an inch long, of a velvety black 

 color, with numerous yellowish or fox-colored hairs, with a white stripe 

 down the back, and numerous short, crinkled white lines on the back and 

 sides; a large black spot on each side of each segment, in the hind part 

 of which spot is a transverse oval pale blue spot, having an impressed 

 line across it; a second pale blue spot in the crinkled white lines below 

 the black spot. 



The full-grown caterpillar is about two inches long and over a quarter 

 of an inch thick, cylindrical, sixteeu-footed and thinly clothed with fine, 

 soft, yellowish or fox-colored hairs of different lengths, the longest ones 

 measuring a quarter of an incb. These hairs are rather more numerous 

 upon the back, where they project obliquely forwards, shielding in some 

 measure the head, which is black and furnished with shortish black 

 hairs. The body is of a deep black color. The white stripe extends along 



9 Second Rpt., 1856, pp. 193, 194. 



