INJURIOUS AND BENEFICIAL INSECTS OF CALIFORNIA. 



403 



THE CALIFORNIA OAK MOTH 

 Phryganidia caUfomica Packard (Family Dioptidse) 



(Figs. 405-408) 



Description. — The adults are light brown with the antennas and 

 veins slightly darker. The length of the body is about £ inch and the 

 wing expanse from 14, to H inches. The eggs are nearly spherical, 

 being slightly flattened above. The color varies from white to 

 pale yellowish or greenish. They are laid singly or in masses of from 

 eight to twenty on the leaves. The full-grown caterpillars are olive- 



Fig-. 405. — Caterpillars of tin- California oak moth, 

 Phryganidia caUfomica Tack., and their work on the 

 coast live oak. Natural size. (Photo by Leroy Childs) 



green with black and prominent yellow longitudinal stripes on the 

 sides and back and from 1 to H inches long. The head is light brown 

 or reddish. The puprc are shiny pale yellow with white and black- 

 markings, as shown in Fig. 407. 



Life History. — There are two broods of this moth a year: one a 

 winter and the other a summer. The winter brood hatches from eggs 

 laid in the autumn on the leaves of the live and deciduous oak trees. 

 The larva hatching from the eggs laid upon the leaves of the decidu- 

 ous oaks perish when the leaves fall in the winter and only those 

 survive which are fortunate enough to have been reared from eggs 



