30 



SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OP 



THE EIGHT-SPOTTED FORESTER -Alypia oclomae data, Fabr. 

 (LopiJoptera, Zy^tenidas.) 



At Plate I, Figure 18 of my First Re- 

 port, the male of this moth is illustrated 

 by the side of its supposed larva, Figure 

 19 of the same Plate. In the text (pp. 

 13G-7) 1 expressed some doubts as to 

 whether this last was the rightful larva of 

 the Eight-spotted Forester, and as I have 

 since reared several moths from the larva 

 state, and ascertained that the worm there 

 . figured does not belong to the Fight- 

 spotted Forester, but in all probability to 

 the Pearl Wood Nymph, I will now give the characters of these three 

 different blue caterpillars, so that they may readily be distinguished 

 hereafter. 



The larva of the Eight-spotted Forester may often be found in 

 the latitude of St. Louis as early as the beginning of May, and more 

 abundantly in June, while scattering individuals (probably of a second 

 brood) are even met with, but half-grown, in the month of Septem- 

 ber. The young larvae are whitish with brown transverse lines, the 

 colors not contrasting so strongly as in the full-grown specimens, 

 though the black spots are more conspicuous. They feed beneath 

 the leaves and can let themselves down by a web. The full grown 

 larva often conceals itself within a folded leaf. It is of the form of 

 Figure 55, a, and is marked transversely with white and black lines, 

 each segment having about eight light and eight dark ones. The 

 bluish appearance of this caterpillar is owing to an optical phenome- 

 non from the contrast of these white and black stripes. The head 

 and the shield on the first segment are of a shiny bright deep orange 

 color, marked with black dots, and there is a prominent transverse 

 orange-red band, faint on segments 2 and 3 ; conspicuous on 4 and 11 

 and uniform in the middle of each of the other segments. In the 

 middle segments of the body each orange band contains eight black 

 conical elevated spots or tubercles, each spot giving rise to a white 

 hair. These spots are arranged as in the enlarged section shown in 

 the engr iving (Fig. 55, 7>), namely, four on each side as follows : the 

 upper one on the anterior border of the orange band, the second on 

 its posterior border, the third just above spiracles on its anterior bor- 

 der — each of the three interrupting one of the transverse black lines 

 — and the fourth, which is smaller, just- behind the spiracles. The 

 venter is black, slightly variegated with bluish-white, and with the 

 orange band extending on the legless segments. The legs are black, 

 and the false-legs have two black spots on an orange ground, at their 

 outer base; but the characteristic feature, which especially distin- 

 guishes it from the other two species, is a lateral white wavy band— 



