714 



AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY 



Lacosdma 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 Lon^ 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 stadium. At the end of the sixth stadium "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 Saturnians 



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- 

 pidae and of some members 

 of the Drepanidee; but the 

 saturnians difi^er from these 

 moths in that vein M2 arises 

 midwa}^ 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 Drepanidae cubi- 

 tus appears to be four- 

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

 midae 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 frenulum is retained. 



