278 MEMOIES OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Tails heavily spiuose, black ; lengtli, 7 mm. The piliferous tubercles of the body are very small, those ou the lateral 

 ref;ion white, besides mauy small lateral white spots. A narrow, yellowish, stigmatal line. Two erect, spiny, black 

 hairs beyond the auus. 



As the stage advances, the spines on joint 2 become partly white, the dorsal liand partly striated .and 

 indistinctly bordered anteriorly with white: the stigmatal line just below the spiracles is white, and there is a 

 general approach to the next stage. 



Fiftk stai/r. — Head rounded, rather flat in front, shagreened. Cidor black, green at the sides posteriorly, a large 

 band in front a.s wide as the space between the eyes at base, but narrowing to the vertex, sordid white, mottled a 

 little with the ground color. Labrum whitish; maxilla' black; antenna' white. Width of head, 3.7 mm. Cervical 

 shield large, angulated at the corners, without any horns or spines. Beneath it the head can bo partly retracted. 

 Body angularly elevated at joint 4, with a dorsal, fleshy ])rocess. Tail 9 mm. long, whitish above and green below 

 at the base, the rest purple with black spines. Extensile threads yellowish at base, then red, fading to yellowish 

 again toward the ends. Body green, a broad white dorsal band edged with white, confusedly striated on a purple 

 ground which soon becomes green, a little jinrple on joints 2—1, decidedly so on the anterior corners of the cervical 

 shield (where it shades into pinkish in the fold of skin behind the head), on the hump on joint 4, and on joint 8 

 subdorsally in the angle of the band. It begins broadly on joint 2, covering the cervical shield, narrows to the 

 process on joint 4, widens to just above the spiracles on joint 8, and gradually narrows to joint 13, where the anal 

 plate is greenish. A distinct white substigmatal line, edged below with brown and narrowly above with black, 

 absent on joint 2 and turned up at its anterior end. Mauy small lateral white flecks. Spiracles black, white 

 centrally. Thoracic feet twice lined with black longitudinally; abdominal, once transversely, the elasjicrs tijiiied 

 with black. Length, 25 mm , exclusive of the tails. The erect spines beyond the anus whitish. When the larva 

 has linished eating, all the white of the dorsal baud except its borders fades out, leaving the back green aud the 

 cervical shield pale blue. 



Cocoon. — Formed on wood, of gummy silk, strengthened by many little pieces of bark and wood bitten off from 

 the inside, thus forming a hollow. It is elliptical, just large enough to contain the larva, and becoires very hard, 

 closely resembling a lump or excrescence on the bark. 



Pupa. — Cylindrical, tapering a little toward botli ends, the last two abdominal seguicnts rounded and 

 appressed, the others capable of motion; no cremaster. Eyes iirominent; a narrow carinated ridge runs along the 

 head from between the eyes to the back of the place of origin of the antenna'. Cases creased and very minutely 

 punctured, not shiny; eyes and body subliistrous, the latter minutely granulated at the anterior half of each 

 abdominal segment; spiracles distinct. Color dark reddish brown, with a blackish shade over the dorsum. 

 Length, 18 mm. ; greatest width, 6.5 mm. Pupation occurs in about two weeks after the completion of the cocoon, 

 and the insects remain in this stage throughout the wiuter. 



Ef/H. — The eggs are said by Professor Riley to be hemispherical and pale yellowish greeu, 

 while those of C. horcall.'i differ in being jet-black. On the other hand Dr. Dyar tells me that the 

 eggs of all onr Centra are black, except those of inulfi.scrq>f(( which are covered by the hairs from 

 the body of the moth. 



Habits. — ^Ir. F. Tepper found the larva of this fine moth on the willow July 30; a male imago 

 emerged August 30 and a female September 30 (Bull. Urooklyn Eut. Soc, i, 4). No description of 

 the larva was published. The life history has been fully described by Mr. Dyar in Psyche (v, p. 

 393), which we have copied. It remains to be seen whether the larva of the white form, 

 scitiscrijyta, differs from what we should call the melanotic form, mi(}ti.scrip1a. 



Food 2>Jniits. — Different species of willow and poplar, also wild cherry. The figures on pi. — 

 were drawn from a specimen found on the wild cherry September 10, at Providence, R. I. Mrs. 

 Slosson has raised it from the pomegranate in Florida. 



Gco(jraphic(d diitribittion. — Its range extends throughout the Appalachian and Austroriparian 

 subprovinces, passing into the eastern limits of tlie Campestrian (Kansas). It is to be observed 

 that the pale whiter form, seitiscripta, inhabits the Austroriparian subprovince (Florida, Georgia to 

 Kansas), while the darker form, with heavier black lines and spots, has thus far only occurred iu 

 the Northern States. It has not yet been re]iorted from any of the New England States; eastern 

 New York (Dyar, Doll, Elliot); Illinois and eastern Missouri (Riley, United States National 

 Museum); Kansas (Lintner ex Strecker); Manhattan, Kans., August 10 (Popenoe); Jacksonville, 

 Fla. (Mrs. Slosson); "Georgia" (Dyar); New York, Missouri, Texas (miilti.srripta, Riley's notes, 

 United States National Museum); multiscripta, New York, Carbondale, 111.; var. seitiscripta, 

 Illinois, Georgia; Candida, New York, Kansas (French); viultiscripta, New York, New Jersey 

 (Palm). 



Riley mentions a "new species" of Cerura from Owens Yalley. (Merrian's North x\.mer. 

 Fauna, No. 7; The Death Yalley Exp., Pt. II, May 31, 1S93, p. 245.) 



