ENTOMOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 



By J. A. LINTNER. 



I. BIOGRAPHY OF HEMILEIICA MAIA (DRURY). 



On the lltli of May (1869) there was found at Center, Albany county, 

 N. Y., a belt of eggs encircling a small twig of Quercus ilicifolia, 

 which was evidently the deposit of some species of Heterocera, but 

 which, at the time, could only be referred problematically to the 

 Bombycidse. 



The Egg. — Its form is obovate, laterally and apically compressed ; 

 its transverse diameter is .075 of an inch, its greater conjugate .06 of 

 an inch, and its lesser conjugate .045 of an inch. Its color is reddish- 

 brown on so much of its apical portion as is visible when observed in 

 the belt, and yellowish-white on the remaining part. AVhen examined 

 with a high magnifying power, minute blackish dots are seen sparsely 

 sprinkled over it, in each of which is a white central point, apparently 

 papilliform. 



During the ensuing two months, five additional clusters of the egg- 

 shells (the larvse having emerged) were found at the same locality, from 

 which the following description is drawn : 



Egg-Mi (Plate 8, fig. 3). — The belts vary in length from .25 to .60 

 of an inch, and surround twigs of Quercus ilicifolia and Q. jyrmoides 

 which range in diameter from .08 to .16 of an inch. The smallest 

 number of eggs in a belt is seventy — the greatest number about one 

 hundred and seventy. "While resembling, in their arrangement, those 

 of the Lackey Moth of Europe {Clisiocampa neustria Linn.), unlike 

 these, they are not deposited in a continuous spiral, but in somewhat 

 irregular rings. Those of the first ring (the first in order of deposit) 

 fAssem. No. 133.] 18 



