HEMILEUCIDS. 129 
tion is taken to guard against its poisonous spines, which 
will, however, not penetrate through thick gloves. A large 
number of parasites are not afraid of this well-armed cater- 
piliar and usually keep it in check. 
FAMILY HEMILEUCID.® OR HEMILEUCIDS. 
This small family gontains but a few rather large and 
conspicuously marked insects. The antennz are broadly 
pectinated in the males and narrowly so or nearly serrate in 
the females. There is only a single pair of teeth to each seg- 
ment of the antennz. The thorax and abdomen are usually 
thickly clothed with long wooly hair. But one species 
occurs in Minnesota. 
THE BUCK MOTH OR MAIA-MOTH. 
(Hemileuca maia Drury). 
This is still another caterpillar which is much more pois- 
onous than any of those already described. It is very com- 
mon in Minnesota, and feeds on the wild cherry and apple, 
but chiefly on the red oak and willows, where it can cause 
considerable damage, as it is a most voracious feeder. The 
caterpillar is brownish-black, with six spined tubercles on 
each segment, except on the eleventh, where there is only 
one dorsal tubercle; an additional one is found on segments 
one to five, and also on segments ten to twelve. The spimes 
on these tubercles are more or less branched; some are trun- 
cate at the tip and bear bristles. Those on the back are 
rusty-yellow, tipped with black, with a few wholly black in 
the center of each branch. ‘The other branched spines are 
black with the blunt ends white, and the spinules arising 
from them dusky. The breathing-pores are pale and nar- 
rowly oval. The underside of the caterpillar is yellowish 
along the middle; the head is light-reddish-brown; the thor- 
acic legs are also light brown, but the prolegs are lighter, 
inclining to Venetian red. When full grown the caterpillar 
measures a little over two inches in length. Fig. 131 shows 
the caterpillar, and Fig. 132, Plate VIII, the moth. 
