364 



PSYCHE. 



[December 1S92. 



PREPARATORY STAGES OF CLISIOCAMPA EROSA STRETCH. 



BY HARRISON G. DYAR, BOSTON, MASS. 



clisiocampa erosa Stretch. 



1 881. —Stretch, Papilio, i, 67. 



Egg. — The egg mass is small, laid to form 

 a ring near the tip of a twig, and covered 

 with varnish. Its length is about 15 mm., 

 the thickness only slightly greater than the 

 longest dimension of the eggs. The eggs 

 are irregularly cylindrical, flattened above 

 and below, and closely packed. Color white, 

 but smeared with the dark brown frothy 

 varnish. Diameter .5 mm. ; height .8 mm. 



First larval stage.* — Head rounded, shiny 

 black, whitish at vertex, with short pale 

 hair; width .40 mm. Body cylindrical, vel- 

 vety black, except an obscure paler substig- 

 matal line. Long whitish hairs arise from 

 minute black warts, several from each, but 

 with a shiny base to each hair. The larvae 

 spin no nest, but merely a slight web over 

 the leaves upon which they rest. In the 

 later stages they are often found in large 

 masses low down on the trunks of the trees 

 without any covering. They resemble Clisio- 

 campa disstria in habit. 



Second stage. — Head higher than wide, 

 rounded, black; width .65 mm. Cervical 

 shield, warts and thoracic feet black; body 

 blackish, with subdorsal, lateral and substig- 

 matal yellowish white lines; a faint dorsal 

 line of bluish white. Hair long, thick, white, 

 spreading from the small warts. Joint 12 is 

 a trifle enlarged. As the stage advances the 

 body becomes blue gray, except the lateral 

 region which is brown gray; the lines are 

 ocher yellow, the subdorsal one with a broad 

 black band above it, leaving a dorsal band of 

 blue gray. On joints 3, 4 and 12 are large, 

 elevated, velvety black, subdorsal spots, one 

 on each. 



Third stage. — Head rounded, black with a 

 slight bluish tinge; width 1.1 mm.f Body 



* I did not find the eggs until they were hatched; but 

 I feel confident that the larvae had not passed a moult. 



black, joint 2 bluish with a large subdorsal 

 wart; large black spots on joints 3 and 4. A 

 dorsal blue line, broken into a series of nearly 

 connecting segmentary spots, enlarged on 

 the anterior part of the segment and tapering 

 behind, present only on joints 3-12. Joint 

 13 bluish. An orange subdorsal line; a 

 blue band below it; a yellowish lateral line; 

 a narrower blue band ; a substigmatal yellow- 

 ish line, each of these narrowly separated 

 by the black ground color; a yellowish line 

 along the bases of the legs. Abdominal feet 

 black, testaceous at tip. Venter black. 



Fourth stage. — Head bluish with small black 

 spots, labrum white, jaws black ; width 1.4 mm. 

 Body flattened below, feet spreading, joint 12 

 a little enlarged dorsally. A row of white 

 dorsal spots, one on each segment on joints 

 3-1 1 but nearly broken into two, a large spot 

 narrowly connected with a little one behind 

 it. The orange subdorsal line is supple- 

 mented by a few orange dashes in the dorsal 

 space; lateral and substigmatal lines orange, 

 but paler, the blue filling in nearly the whole 

 space between them, except for the spots on 

 joints 3, 4 and 12, and a row of much smaller 

 ones on the intervening joints. The broken 

 line along the bases of the legs is pale orange. 

 Joints 2, 12 posteriorly and 13 are blue gray. 

 Hair all reddish, thin on the back, but quite 

 thick subventrally. Feet black, the abdomi- 

 nal paler at the tips. 



Fifth stage. — Very much as before; width 

 of head 2.1 mm. The anterior one of the 

 two white dorsal spots on each joint of joints 

 3-12 is pointed behind and followed by the 

 posterior small rounded spot. On joints 3, 

 4 and 12 the blue band is broken by a quad- 

 rate black spot as in the previous stage and on 

 joints 5-1 1 and 13, there is a small black spot, 

 defined as an incision in lower edge of band. 



f This is abnormally large, but the measurement was 

 made with care from several examples. 



