ENTOMOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 157 



VI. NOTES ON SOME NEW YORK NOCTUIM, ETC. 



Diphtera deridens Guenee. 



Larva resembling an Arctia in form, somewhat narrowed ante 

 riorly and broadest toward the posterior segments, as represented in 

 Fig. 12. Head white, with black markings as seen at a. Body 

 white, segments rounded, smooth, FIG. 12. 



but from the points where in an 

 Arctia the tubercles are located, 

 soft white hairs, one-fourth of an 

 inch long, radiate, as fine as the 

 finest silk spun by caterpillars, which curve at their tips and inter 

 lace, entirely enveloping the body. Length at maturity, 1.25 in. ; 

 diameter at broadest portion, .25 in. 



On September 4th, it made an oval cocoon, of uniform texture 

 throughout, of fine silk. 



On the 10th, it had undergone its pupal change; the dark-brown 

 pupa could be distinctly seen through the delicate cocoon. 



The imago was disclosed May 25th (1862). 



Acronycta Americana Harris MS. 



Since the printing of the notes on this species, on page 135 of 

 this Report, I have been permitted to see colored figures of the larva 

 and imago of Acronycta alni Linn. The larva, in its ground color, 

 dorsal series of yellow spots, shape and comparative length of bristles 

 etc., represents our larva so well, that, at the first glance, it might be 

 taken for an accurate representation of it. It has the four long and 

 two short bristles on the first segment, with none on the following- 

 two segments, as in ours. The single bristle shown in the figure on 

 segments ten and eleven and the three on segment twelve, are pro 

 bably inaccuracies of delineation through carelessness of the artist, 

 as evidently are the placing of a bristle on each of the iricisures of 

 the sixth segment, and the location of several of the bristles else 

 where than in the lateral portions of the spots. The spots are shown 

 as being marked with a number of irregular black lines, like Chaldaic 

 letters, unlike the single, transverse, impressed line in our larva. In 



