Eleventh Keport of the State Entomologist 



129 



Description of E. nitidalis Larva. 

 Professor Riley has given in his 2nd Mo. Report {loc. cit.) a careful 

 description and drawing of the pickle-worm, which for convenient refer- 

 ence we quote, together with the appended description of an earlier stage 

 by Walsh. His figure, in which the moth is also represented, is herewith 

 reproduced : 



One of the worms is represented in the figure 2 in natural size. They 

 vary much in appearance, some being of a yellowish-white, and very 

 much resembling the inside 

 of an unripe melon, wliile 

 others are tinged more or 

 less with green. They are 

 all quite soft and trans 

 lucent, and there is a trans- 

 verse row of eight shiny, 

 slightly elevated spots on 

 each segment, and an ad- 

 ditional two behind tht 

 others on the back. (See 

 Fig. 2, c.) Along the back 

 and toward the head, these 

 spots are larger than at the 

 sides, and each spot gives 

 rise to a fine hair. Thf 

 specimen from which I 

 obtained my first moth last 

 summer was very light 

 colored, and these spots 

 were so nearly the color of the body as to be scarcely visible. The head 

 was honey-yellow bordered with a brown line and with three black con- 

 fluent spots at the palpi. 



The cervical shield or horny plate on the first segment was of the same 

 color as the body, and so transparent that the brown border of the head 

 when retracted shone distinctly through it as at Figure 2, b. The 

 breathing- holes or stigmata are small, oval, and of the same color as the 

 body, with a fulvous ring around them. In some of the young worms 

 the shiny spots are quite black and conspicuous. My late associate, Mr. 

 Walsh, communicated to me the following description of such a marked 

 specimen, from which he bred the very same species of m.oth as from the 

 paler individuals. The description was taken when the worm was but 

 half- grown. 



Length y^ inch. Color pale greenish yellow; 16 legs. Head pale 

 rufous, the Y-shaped sutures and the mouth black. Cervical shield as in 

 Figure 2 , d, each half edged with black, center rufous. Marked under 

 shield as at e, and the same lateral markings on joints 2 and 3. Above 

 on joints 2 and 3 as at/. On joints 4-1 1, eight (including 2 lateral) 

 spots transversely arranged, and behind these, two dorsal spots. Of the 

 eight spots the two lateral ones on each side are substigmatal. Stigmata 

 edged with dusky. Anal joint with five spots as in ^'•, the middle one 



Fig. 



The pickle-caterpillar and cucumber moth, 

 OPTIS NITIDALIS. (From Riley.) 



Eiui- 



