132 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



181. Nola ovilla Grote. 

 (Larva. Plate xxxv, Fig. 2.) 



One of the raost interesting forms whose life-history we have made 

 out is that of a species of Nola. The position of the genus Nola has 

 long been an uncertain one. By some of the older authors, notably 

 Hiibner, the species were placed among the Pyralidse, and Staiuton in 

 his Manual of British Butterflies and Moths regards the genus as form- 

 ing " Family ix, Nolidte " under the Pyralites, though he says : " One 

 little group, the Nolidae, is by many recent authors, and perhaps with 

 reason, referred to the Bombycina, being placed with family Lithosidae." 



The genus is now generally placed among the Lithosians. In our 

 Synopsis of Bombycidse we omitted to mention it, partly on account of 

 want of specimens and partly i^erhaps from supposing it not to be a 

 true Bombycid. Mr. Grote was the first American author to enumerate 

 it in his New Check List of North American Moths, 1884, and to in- 

 clude it among the Litbosise. 



Having reared Nola ovilla, my attention has again been drawn to its 

 systematic position, which seems without much doubt to be properly 

 among the Lithosite and near Glemensia. 



I have found the larva frequently on the oak in September both in 

 Maine and Ehode Island. Its habit is unmistakably Lithosian; it dif- 

 fers, however, from Arctian and Lithosian larv.e in having one less pair 

 of abdominal legs, having but four pairs, whereas the caterpillars of 

 the Lithosiiie and Arctians have, like most caterpillars, an additional 

 pair, i. e., ten abdominal legs in all. 



When I first discovered the larva of Nola ovilla I supposed it to be 

 near Crocota. It was found to be common on the leaves of the oak in 

 Maine, September 6. 



September 14 to 16 the caterpillars made singular boat-shaped, flat- 

 tened, oval-cylindrical cocoons closely attached to the surface of the 

 leaves ; they were spun with silk, but covered closely on the inside 

 with bits of oak leaves. The pupa appeared as soon as the cocoon was 

 completed, September 15. The moths appeared May 31 and June 1 of 

 the following year. 



Larva. — The body is broad and much flattened, rather short, with four pairs of well 

 developed abdominal feet, the iirst pair being situated on the fourth abdominal seg- 

 ment. The head is not very large, three-fourths as wide as the body ; black, with a 

 few paler irregular lines. The body is dirty- whitish, with a dark linear dorsal line, 

 a dark dorsal discoloration behind the head, another in the middle of the body, and 

 a third near the end. 



The body is hairy, though not densely so ; on each segment are four dorsal tubercles 

 from which radiate short dusky hairs; on the side is a larger and longer tubercle 

 from which arise lateral very long hairs, being as long as the body is broad ; some 

 black hairs are mixed with the dirty-whitish ones. The larger and most of the 

 shorter hairs are simple, not barbed, but the shortest, smallest hairs are finely though 



