PINE CATERPILLARS. 771 



mdrical, tapering at the extremities, and without a caudal horn. Dorsally, a red- 

 dish-brown line interrupted on the hinder portion of each segment by a square of 

 greeu traversed by diagonal lines; a subdorsal yellow line borders the above ; lateral 

 stripe yellow ; substigmatal stripe white, interrupted at the sutures by light greeu ; 

 ventral stripe and prolegs rose-red. Feeds on the white pine, and matures about 

 the middle of yeptember, when it enters the ground and forms a cell, where it 

 becomes a chrysalis. 



91. The imperial spiny caterpillar. 



Eacles imperialis (Drury). 



Order Lepidoptera ; family Bombycid^. 



(Larva, Plate vi, figs, la, lb.) 



Among the leaves of the white pine in the Northern States, late in August and 

 through September, a large, thick, pale-green caterpillar between 3 and 4 inches 

 long, with the head and legs pale orange, with six thorny, yellow knobs behind the 

 head ; pupating in the ground and changing late in June to a large, handsome, yellow 

 moth, speckled with brown, and with a very light purple-brown band across the 

 outer margin of each wing. 



The transformatious of this moth were first described by Harris, but 

 the earlier stages have more recently been fully described by Mr. Lint- 

 ner, in his Entomological Contributions, No. II. Though usually feed- 

 ing on the white pine in the New England States, where we have seen 

 it in the breeding-cages of entomological friends, it also feeds on the 

 oak, button-wood, etc., and will eat the leaves of the chestnut. It is 

 too rare to be of any economical importance, but will always attract 

 the attention of lovers of fine, rare insects. The moth lays its eggs 

 late in June, hatching in about a week or ten days ; the larva, accord- 

 ing to Lintner, molting at least four, if not five times. 



Larva. — Three or 4 inches long and more than half an inch in diameter, and tor 

 the most part of a green color, slightly tinged with red on the back, but many of 

 them become more or less tanned or swarthy, and are sometimes found entirely 

 brown. There are a few very short hairs thinly scattered over the body ; the head and 

 the legs are pale orange-colored ; the oval spiracles are large and white, encircled 

 with green ; on each of the rings, except the first, there are six thorny knobs or hard 

 and pointed warts of a yellow color, covered with short black prickles ; the two 

 uppermost of these warts on the top of the second and of the third rings are a quar- 

 ter of an inch or more in length, curved backwards like horns, and are of a deeper 

 yellow color than the rest ; the three triangular pieces on the posterior extremity of 

 the body are brown, with yellow margins, and are covered with raised orange-colored 

 dots. (Harris.) 



Pupa. — Subterranean, not contained in a cocoon, about 2 inches long, of a dark 

 chestnut-brown color, rough, with little elevated points, especially in front ; the end 

 of the body with a long forked spine, and surrounded, on each ring, with a notched 

 ridge, the little teeth of which point towards the tail. Three of the grooves or incis- 

 ions between the rings are very deep, thus allowing a great extent of motion to the 

 jointS; and these, with the notched ridges and the long spine at the end of the body, 

 enable the chrysalis to work its way upward in the earth, above the surface of which 

 it pushes the fore part of its body just before the moth makes its escape. (Harris.) 



Moth. — Ocher-yellow, spotted with purple-brown, with a large patch at the base, 

 a small round spot near the middle, and a broad, wavy, light purple-brown band 



