TENT-CATERPILLARS. 119 



164. The Californian tent-caterpillar. 



Clisiocampa californica Packard. 



Feeding on the scrubby oak, in abundance near San Francisco, a tent-caterpillar 

 witli a black head and a doable rusty reddish dorsal line, often inclosing a long pale 

 blue median dash, one to each segment ; and with two lateral pale blue irregular 

 spots ; appearing from the middle of March till the middle of April. 



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 follow- 

 ing spring. Just when the young shoots of the oaks (Querciis agrifolia Nee) begin to 

 appear, the larvaj 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 tlie 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 per- 

 manently affected, as they soon send forth fresh shoots, and toward the time that the 

 caterpillars undergo their change to the chrysalis they are green aud gay again. The 

 larvae 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, ^sculus californica, Phatinia arbutifolia, 

 Arbutus memiesii, 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 great- 

 est abundance about the middle of June. 



" This species," says Mr. Stretch (in Papilio, vol. i, No. 5), " is exceed- 

 ingly abundant in the neighborhood of San Francisco, and is probably 

 widely distributed." Near San Francisco its favorite food-plant is a 

 species of scrubby oak, Q. agrifolia, but it is sometimes found on the 

 blackberry {Rubus) and other shrubby plants. Its depredations have 

 lately, Professor Rivers writes me, extended to the orchards. The 

 nests, according to Mr. Stretch, may be seen in warm localities as early 

 as the middle of March, while in those more exposed they are not seen 

 till the middle of April ; but both these dates are sufficiently early to 

 protect the orchards. The larvoB pupate in about six weeks from the 

 egg, and the imago appears in about a fortnight. 



The following notes have been received from Professor Riley : 



Received April 20, 1877, from Mr. E, W. Hilgard, Berkeley County, Cal., several 

 larvae and pupae of above insect. 



Corresp., 1869, p. 292) the larva. Morris (Synop. Lepid. N. A., 1862, p. 326) quotes 

 Harris's descriptions (1841) of the larva aud imago. Riley (Amer. Entom., July-Aug., 

 1870, V. 2, pp. 261-265, and 3d Rept. State Entom. Mo., 1871, pp. 121-127) describes 

 eggs and egg-mass, larva and imago, giving, in addition to the food-plants men- 

 tioned above, Fraxinus, Tilia, Rosa, Carya, plum, and peach. Saunders (Can. Eutora., 

 July, 1872, V. 4, p. 134) repeats Riley's figures and (op. cit., Aug., 1877, v. 9, p. 159), 

 gives another figure of the larva, adding Acer, Crataegus, and Fagus to the food- 

 plants; later Saunders {op. cit., Feb., 1878, v. 10, pp. 21-23) gives notes on the eggs 

 of this species and of C. americana, and on the destruction of these eggs by mites. 

 The larva of this species eats leaves of Beiula alba. 



