110 



PSYCHE. 



[July 1S91. 



NOTES ON BOMBYCID LARVAE.— I. 



BY HAHRISON G. DYAK, NEW YORK, N. Y. 



Nola ovilla Grote. 



1875. Grote, Can. ent., 7, 221. 



1884. Packard, Amer. nat., iS, 726. 



Larva. Dr. Packard makes the following 

 statements : " It differs from Arctian and 

 Lithosian larvae in having one less pair of 

 abdominal legs. The body is broad and 

 much flattened, rather short, with four pairs 

 of well developed abdominal feet; the first 

 pair being situated on the fourth abdominal 

 segment. 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. Length 13 mm." 



Cocoon. "Boat-shaped, flattened, oval 

 cylindrical, closely attached to the surface 

 of a leaf. It is composed of silk, covered 

 closely on the inside with bits of oak leaves." 

 Nola trinotata Walker. 



1866. Walk., Cat. Brit, mus., pt. 35, pg. 

 1902, Lebena. 



1891. Butler, Insect life, v. 3, p. 297, 

 sexmaculata Grote. 



1877. Grote, Can. ent., v. 9, p. 235. 

 Nola. 



1S90. Dyar, Insect life, v. 3, p. 61. 



Larva. I have elsewhere described this 

 larva. It is a thick, somewhat flattened in- 

 sect, the last segment small, the abdominal 

 feet consisting of but four pairs, as in the 

 preceding. It is furnished with piliferous 

 warts as above. It lives exposed upon the 

 surface of the leaves, forming no web. 



Cocoon. Curiously constructed of little 

 pieces of bark laid together like bricks. It is 

 interesting to watch the larva forming its 

 cocoon, which it does by building up two 

 parallel walls by spinning the little pieces of 

 outer bark together by their edges, and sub- 



sequently drawing them together from the 

 inside. The pieces of bark are bitten off the 

 branch on which it forms its cocoon. 



Nola hyemalis Stretch. 



18S5. Stretch, Ent. amer., 1, 102. 



Larva. Congeneric with the above. Body 

 flattened, wider than high, tapering very 

 slightly to the extremities; abdominal feet 

 present only on the 4th, 5th, 6th and roth ab- 

 dominal segments. Head small, pale testa- 

 ceous, whitish above the mouth with brown- 

 ish marks at the sides; ocelli black. Body 

 pinkish, cervical shield bisected, dark; three 

 rows of piliferous warts on each side as in 

 N. sexmaculata. The upper two are brown- 

 ish and bear short hairs ; the third row (lat- 

 eral) is orange, and bears long, whitish 

 hairs. On the body is an interrupted dorsal 

 and waved subdorsal line, and brown dorsal 

 shades connected with the lines; spiracles 

 black; length of larva 10 mm. 



Cocoon. Not strong, composed entirely of 

 silk, and not firmly fastened to a support. It 

 is elliptical, opaque white. The pupa is with- 

 out cremaster, light brown, and pilose. 



I found a number of these larvae on willow 

 near Phcenix, Arizona, in November, 1889. 



Nola sorghiella Riley. 



1882. Riley, Report U. S. dep. agr., 

 187, pi. 11. 



Larva. This is congeneric with the pre- 

 ceding species, as may be seen from Prof. 

 Riley's figures. It is of the same general 

 shape, and has the characteristic four pairs 

 of abdominal feet, but differs from the other 

 species strikingly in habit, as the larvae ap- 

 pear to live socially in a web. 



These four species of Nola are the only 

 ones of which the larvae are known, so far as 

 I am aware. 



