Il8 PSYCHE [December 



HEMILEUCA BUDLEYI. 



BY CAROLINE GRAY SOULE, BROOKLINE, MASS. 



The cocoons came from Mexico. Early in June the moths began to emerge 

 and mated readily. 



On June 9th the first eggs were laid. Tliey were opaque, porcelain-white, 

 set on end, with a thin and transparent spot in the upper end, through which the 

 contents showed green. In ten days a black dot appeared in the green spot and 

 increased in size until it filled it. This was the head of the larva. The eggs grew 

 grayish, and hatched on the twenty-eighth day, July 7th. 



The hatchlings had large black heads, and their yellow bodies tapered from 

 head to anal end. The setae were shining black, and the branching spines on the 

 dorsum of the thoracic segments were long. Their legs were shining black, 

 props yellow the anal ones having a black patch on each. 



At first the larvae crawled constantly, spinning as they went, and moving very 

 rapidly. They did not eat the eggshells. 



Although the eggs were laid on several successive nights all hatched within a 

 few hours. 



The larvae rested in a dense group on a leaf of wild cherry or on the tin, and 

 fed in close rows, all headed in one direction. 



The first moult occurred in seven days. The head was black. The body was 

 black with long, yellow, branching spines, more like those of rnaia than any other. 

 The legs and props were black. 



The second moult came in seven days. The larvae were all black with yellow 

 spines, more branching and longer than before, those on the thoracic segments 

 being of a more orange color, the others of bright canary yellow. If the caterpillars 

 stayed on the leaf on which they had fed they spun very little silk to moult on, but 

 if they moved to another leaf they spun a dense mat of silk. They ate their skins 

 after each moult. 



The third moult came in seven days, and made the lar\ae more velvety black 

 and more golden yellow than before, and the spines larger and still more branching. 



The eversible sacs were conspicuous on the black skin, like white papillae, 

 appearing and disappearing with almost the regularity of the ticking of a clock 

 except when the caterpillar was disturbed or in motion At this stage I found that 

 each company of larvae contained some much smaller than the rest, and these were 

 in danger of harm from the crowding of the larger ones, so I removed all the small 

 ones to a tin by themselves, where they throve and grew much faster than before. 



I found that one larva in a tin alone would not thrive, but stopped eating and 



