120 TWENTY-SIXTH REPORT ON Tits STATE MUSEUM. 



was acquainted with its manners, I have frequently taken the one 

 for the other ;" and again, when writing of E. grata (loc. cit. p. 138), 

 he says : " The position of the larva in repose, with its head depressed, 

 and the third and fourth segments arched upwards, give it a hunch- 

 backed appearance ; the attitude, disposition of the colors and the 

 habitat, are similar to those of the larva of Alypia octomaculata." 



Several of the larvge of P. epimenis, sent to Mr. Riley by corres- 

 pondents and also collected by himself from grape-vines, were referred 

 by him, although with some doubt, to A. octomaculata, * and were 

 figured in association with the imago in one of his plates. Subse- 

 quently he was able to rear octomaculata from its larva, which he 

 figures and describes, correcting the first erroneous reference, f But 

 in continuation of the confusion, the epimenis larva is now made to 

 stand (with a reservation) for E. unio, the larval state of which was 

 then unknown ; and only in a following report does it find its true 

 name and proper place beside the beautiful imago which it produces. 

 I mention the above, not to reflect, in the slightest degree, upon 

 Mr. Riley, whose able reports are conceded to be very valuable 

 acquisitions to science, but as an illustration of the close resemblances 

 existing among these larvae. If they are capable of thus puzzling so 

 accurate an observer, there certainly is need of faithful description, 

 or at least a statement of prominent features and differences, that 

 their identification, whenever met with, may not be a matter of doubt. 



I regret that I have no memoranda, or material at hand, to enable 

 me to institute a full comparison between the most nearly allied of 

 these larvae, viz., octomaculata, grata and unio. I have only at 

 command two alcoholic examples of unio, three immature forms of 

 grata, and one collected several years ago and labeled grata but 

 which I believe to be octomaculata. 



The comparative length of the hairs will, in all probability, prove 

 a sufficient distinction between the last two. Harris (Ent. Gorr., p. 

 286,) describes the mature larva of octomaculata, taken July 16th, 

 as transversely banded with orange and dotted with black, the dots 

 being in two alternate rows, and all of them emitting distinct, long, 

 whitish hairs. In a young larva found by him July 2d, between 

 one-fourth and one-third of an inch long, the hairs were very distinct. 

 Of grata, occurring abundantly on the grape-vine, August 10th, he 



* First Report on the Insects of Missouri, 1869, p. 136. 

 f Second Report on the Insects of Missouri, 1870, p. 80. 



