28 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 95 



FIRST-STAGE CATERPILLAR 

 Plate 6, fig. 30 ; plate 8, figs. 43, 49, 50 



On issuing from the egg the caterpillar of Rhabdoides cellns is 2 mm 

 long and has a disproportionately large head 0.7 mm in width. 



The head is finely and evenly rugose and bears a few widely scat- 

 tered long bristles. The ocelli are six in number, four of them equally 

 spaced in a curved line, one directly back of this line on the same level 

 as the space between the second and third in the line counting from the 

 top and distant from the line about half its length, and the sixth 

 behind and below the others, " southwest " of the lower end of the 

 line on the right side and " southeast " on the left, and distant about 

 the length of the line from the its lower end. 



The dorsal shield on the first thoracic segment is large and con- 

 spicuous with broadly rounded ends that reach about half way down 

 the side of the segment. Its longitudinal length in the middorsal line 

 is equal to about half the length of the head at the same level. It bears 

 a bristle near the anterior edge half way between the middorsal line 

 and the end, and another half way between this and the end near the 

 posterior edge. 



The first thoracic segment bears on either side a single very long 

 hair curving anteriorly. 



The legs of the first thoracic segment are darker and more corneous 

 than the others. 



Each segment behind the first thoracic bears two long hairs near 

 the ventrolateral margin and one above the spiracle, or, if a spiracle 

 is not present, in the corresponding position. 



Dorsally each segment bears four well-separated minute papillae 

 each supporting a short, straight, blackish, apically enlarged bristle, 

 there being four rows of these down the back, the two inner rows 

 very regular, the two outer more or less irregular. 



The terminal segment bears on each side of the median line two 

 long hairs near the distal border of the dorsal surface, and two below. 



The prolegs have two long hairs on the outer side. 



The spiracle of the eighth abdominal segment is very much larger 

 than the minute spiracles on the other abdominal segments, and is 

 situated about twice as far above the ventrolateral border. 



The anal aperture has below it a conspicuous long wedge-shaped 

 fan terminating in a comb of long, dark, tapering, stifif bristles. 



The head is light yellow brown, the mouth parts margined with 

 narrow lines of darker, and the bases of the ocelli darker. The dorsal 

 shield is deep maroon, the rest of the first thoracic segment pink. The 

 body is chrome yellow. 



