4 JOURNAL New York Entomological Society. [Voi. iv. 



ing quite a severe pain and retaining this power even when spun into 

 the cocoon. 



Criticisms of Previous Descriptions. 



We have given a list of eleven descriptions or figures of this larva. 

 All but one of them treat of the general characters of the larva, prin- 

 cipally the mature larva. Harris' figures are probably the best, though 

 far from exact. Dr. A. S. Packard in 1893 gave the first account of 

 the life history, though but partially, with figures of structural details. 

 His figure of stage I is incorrect in two respects. He represents three 

 rows of tubercles on joints 3 to 5, where there are but two, and shows 

 the spiracle on joint 5 in line with the others with a tubercle above it, 

 whereas there is really no tubercle there and the spiracle is not in line 

 (compare our figure, Plate I, fig. i). Dr. Packard has well figured the 

 principal other structural elements except the long detachable spines 

 (Plate I, fig. 7). These are one of the most noticeable elements; but 

 we have seen no exact published account of them. Harris calls them 

 "deep purplish red, velvet-like spots;" Packard mentions them as "a 

 pair of rust brown flattened branches of singular spinules " and Dyar 

 refers briefly to an " elevated brown structure like many spines close to- 

 gether " in his general description of the mature larva. The Rev. J. 

 L. Zabriskie has exhibited preparations of these spines to the New York 

 Entomological Society, but the minutes of the meeting have not been 

 published. 



Dr. Packard describes the several stages as if there were but five. 

 He appears to have had stage I, stage IV toward the end of the stage, 

 stage V (described twice) and stage VIII, the last ; but he has num- 

 bered them consecutively. 



Mr. Dyar, in his description of the mature larva, has referred, by 

 error> the last two horns of the subdorsal row to the lateral row, which 

 causes him to speak of "an extra pair at the anus" and to locate the 

 spine patches wrongly. 



Description of the Several Stages in Detail. 



Egg. — (Plate I, fig. 20). Elliptical, very flat, almost as thin as 

 paper, thin shelled, laid in a mass of fifty or more, imbricate in alterna- 

 ting rows like shingles on a roof, neatly and regularly set. Transparent, 

 yellowish, clear, the shell covered with neat irregularly hexagonal, 

 pentagonal or even quadrangular reticulate opaque lines ; rarely one of 

 these cell areas is circular. The lines are narrow, not perceptibly 



