March 1912.] AldRICH : LaRV^ UsED AS FoOD BY INDIANS. 3 



tried to freshen up some more material by prolonged soaking in warm 

 water. To a certain degree it improved the condition of the specimens, 

 but was far from making them life-like. I then tried injecting the 

 softened specimens with gelatine, which helped a little more. The 

 skins had too many holes in them, after manipulating them to make 

 them soft, to hold the gelatine very well, so I tried injecting with 

 dental plaster of Paris, and with this I obtained some specimens that 

 were as plump as life, if not more so, and certainly a good deal solider. 

 Some of these injected specimens, as well as of the shriveled dried 

 ones, are illustrated in the accompanying half-tones. 



The identity of the insect concerned remains to be considered. 

 I was surprised to learn that no species is known to have the habits I 

 have described. Material sent to the Bureau of Entomology elicited 

 the following statement from Dr. Howard : " Dr. Dyar has examined 

 the caterpillars eaten by the Indians at Mono Lake, and decided that 

 they are Saturnians, probably of the genus Heniilciica, but he does not 

 know any species feeding on pine or one so common as this must be. 

 He suggests that perhaps it is some ' rare ' species whose habits are 

 unknown." 



I append a description of a moderately distended injected larva. 



Length, 70 mm. Head acorn-colored, 6.3 mm. wide, 5.7 mm. high. 

 Width of widest body-segment (2d abdominal) ii.i mm. Color as 

 revived yellow mottled with paler and blackish ; all the body-segments 

 except the first and the last two crossed by a broad yellow band on 

 its posterior part, which becomes indistinct along the sides about the 

 vicinity of the spiracles. A central dorsal whitish stripe crosses all 

 these bands, and its color interrupts the yellow to some extent, espe- 

 cially along the middle of the length. On each side of the median 

 pale stripe is a wide, blackish stripe, interrupted by the yellow cross- 

 bands ; laterad to this is a narrow pale stripe, also interrupted. The 

 side below this is mottled yellow and blackish, with an undulating 

 yellow stripe below the spiracles. Ventral side yellow, prolegs, anal 

 plate and anal prolegs acorn-colored. 



The tubercles are all small, black, and so much broken off that I 

 can only make them out by piecing together several specimens. They 

 appear to have the following arrangement : four dorsal in a transverse 

 series across the middle of each segment, for ten body-segments ; the 

 eleventh segment with a larger median branched tubercle (shown in 



