92 ZYGJENW/E AND BOMBYCID^E 



not being used to assist in progression, but usually slightly elevated. 

 Body smooth, transversely winkled. Younger specimens differ chiefly 

 in the disproportionate size of the head. 



Pupa, suspended by the tail, naked, greenish white with black mark- 

 ings. Head and eyes prominent, front broad, maxillce legs and antennae 

 well marked, antennas equal in length to the wing cases and separating 

 them. Prothorax broad and short; mesothorax prominent, oval; meta- 

 thorax well developed ; abdomen conical, sharply truncated, with ter- 

 minal spine. Wing cases ample, extending to beyond fourth abdom- 

 inal segment. All sutures of head and thorax, legs and antennae lined 

 with black; the eyes are also of the same color, as well as the nervules, 

 which show clearly oh the wing cases. The mesothorax has a central 

 black line; the abdomen has a dorsal row of black points on the anterior 

 margin of each segment, and a lateral row of black spots blending into 

 each other towards the anal segment, which is black. Stigmata black. 

 Abdomen below with two sublateral series of black transverse spots 

 nearly blending into two longitudinal bands. Length 1.20 inch. 



This insect is exceedingly abundant round the Bay of San Francisco 

 and probably in many other portions of California, occurring in some 

 seasons and localities in such numbers as almost to strip the live oaks 

 on which they feed, of their foliage. The first brood is evolved about 

 the 15th of June, and is followed by an autumnal brood. When first 

 hatched the young larvae appear to be nearly all head, so disproportion- 

 ate is the latter to the rest of the body; as maturity is approached the 

 disproportion decreases, but the head is always greater in diameter than 

 the body. The larvae feed singly, and appear to make little if any use 

 of the anal feet, as means of progression, generally carrying the last 

 segment elevated in the air, and in this respect show a certain affinity 

 to some notodontians as well as to Cerura and Platypteryx. The insect 

 cannot, however, be classed with these genera. Packard quotes Hete" 

 rogynis as the nearest ally, and points out the differences between the 

 two genera. Now Heterogynis is removed by many European writers 

 to the Zygaenida;, and it seems to me that Phryganidia should be also 

 removed to that group, instead of being classed among the Psychidae, 

 as originally described by Packard. One of the distinctive features of 

 the Psychids is the case-bearing habit of the larvae, and the generally 

 apterous condition of the females. Phryganidia possesses neither of 

 these characteristics, the larva being naked with the normal lepidopter- 

 ous form, and the pupa without surrounding envelope and suspended 

 by the tail, as in many Rhopalocera and some Geometrae. This latter 



