INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE OAK. 43 
38. THE CALIFORNIAN LAPPET-MOTH. 
Gastropacha californica Pack. 
Order LEPIDOPTERA; family BOMBYCIDZ. 
Feeding in California on the oak as well as apple and pear trees, and spinning thin 
and irregular webs over the branches. 
The larva, and pupa and cocoon have as yet not been described. I 
extract the following notice of its habits, by Mr. Henry Edwards: 
The moth lays its eggs in June, and they must remain unhatched until the folowing 
spring. Just when the young shoots of the oaks (Quercus agrifolia Nee) begin to appear, 
the larvee make their appearance also, spinning thin and irregular webs over the 
branches of the trees. In these webs they house mostly during the heat of the day, 
but sally forth in the evening and at night for food. In this way they will soon strip 
a tree of its leaves, though it is well to say that the oaks do not seem to be perma- 
nently affected, as they soon send forth fresh shoots, and toward the time that the 
caterpillars undergo their change to the chrysalis they are green and gay again. The 
larvee retain the shelter of their web until after the third molt, when they wander 
away singly, are found everywhere, becoming sometimes a complete nuisance in gar- 
dens and fields. They feed in their more mature stages upon many plants besides the 
oak, eating with avidity willows, ash, Dsculus californica, Phatinia arbutifolia, Arbutus 
menziesii, as well as apple and pear trees. Toward the end of May they spin their 
cocoons, seeming to have no choice of locality, but fixing themselves wherever they 
may chance to be, either on walls, palings, trunks, or branches of trees, stems of 
grapes, or among the leaves of herbaceous plants. The time in the chrysalis state is 
about eighteen to twenty-one days, so that the moths emerge and are in the greatest 
abundance about the middle of June. They come very readily to light, and are a pest 
to the entomologist in his nocturnal rambles. I regret that I cannot now send you 
‘descriptions of the larva and chrysalis. 
39. THE CALIFORNIAN PHRYGANIDEA. 
Phryganidea californica Pack. 
Order LEPIDOPTERA; family ZYGNIDX. 
Very destructive to young oaks, a naked, yellowish-white caterpillar, striped with 
black and white, with a large head, wandering incessantly over the bushes and feed- 
ing very rapidly; spinning no cocoon, but the chrysalis, yellowish and black, attached 
by the tail to fences, &c. 
This is, by its numbers and familiar habits, one of the best known and 
most destructive insects of California. The following account has been 
furnished me for Hayden’s Report by Mr. Henry Edwards.* 
This insect is also very destructive to our young oaks, the caterpillars, which are 
perfectly naked and with the head almost monstrous in size, making their appearance 
about the same time as those of Gastropacha. They are 
restless little creatures, wandering incessantly over the , 
trees, and feeding very rapidly. They spin no cocoon, but 4 
hang by the tail, like the larva of Vanessa, &c. The 
change to the chrysalis is undergone in April and May, 
and the moths appear in about fifteen or sixteen days. 
There is a second brood of these insects, the imagos of 
the latter appearing in September and October. Indeed, pyc, 11,—Californian Phrygani- 
fresh specimens are now upon the wing, though the second dea.—From Packard. 
brood is by no means so abundant as the first. I have observed that Phryganidea and 
*A.5S. Packard, jr., Report on the Rocky Mountain Locust, &c. Hayden’s Report U. Goological . 
Survey of the ‘lerritories for 1875. 
