714 



AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY 



Lacosoma chiridota.- — Although this is the rarer of our two eastern 

 species its complete life-history has been published by Dyar ('oo). 

 He found the larvae common on scrub oaks on Long Island. The eggs 

 are laid on the edge of the leaf or on one of its points. The first three 

 instars live under a net of silken threads on the upper surface of a leaf. 

 At the end of the third stadium the larva begins to make a case; 

 but the larva does not leave its net and construct a complete case 

 until during the fifth stadiiun. At the end of the sixth stadii.mi "the 

 larva spins up one end of the case and hibernates. Pupation in the 

 spring. A single brood in the year. " The moth is somewhat smaller 

 than the preceding species, and darker yellowish brown in color; the 

 outer margins of the fore wings are more scalloped. 



SuPERFAMiLY SATURNIOIDEA 



The Saturniaiis 



The superfamily Satumioidea includes the largest of our native 

 moths; in fact nearly all of our very large moths belong to it, but it 

 also includes a considerable number of species of moderate size. 



These moths are most easily distinguished from other moths by 

 the structure of their wings. Here, as with the skippers and the butter- 

 flies, the frenulum is lost 

 and its place is taken by a 

 greatly expanded humeral 

 angle of the hind wing (Fig. 

 912), which, projecting un- 

 der the fore wing, insures 

 the acting together of the 

 two in flight without the aid 

 of a frenulimi. This losing 

 of the frenulimi is also char- 

 acteristic of the Lasiocam- 

 pidas and of some members 

 of the Drepanidse; but the 

 saturnians difi:er from these 

 moths in that vein M2 arises 

 midway between radius and 

 cubitus or is more closely 

 united to radius than to cu- 

 bitus, leaving the latter ap- 

 parently three-branched 

 while in the Lasiocampidas 

 and in the Drepanidas cubi- 

 tus appears to be four- '"^ 



branched. In the Lacoso- Fig. 912. — Wings of atheroma regalis. 

 midse and in the Bombyci- 



dae the humeral angle of the hing wings is greatly expanded, but in 

 each of these families a vestige of a frenulimi is retained. 



