Dec, 1917 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 1 03 



PREPARATORY STAGES OF HOMOPTERA UNILINEATA. 



By Howard L. Clark, Bristol, R. I. 



Eggs. — Obtained from two females taken at sugar and de- 

 posited May 25 to 29, 1916. Dia. i mm. ; shape blunt cone 

 rounded at the apex; irregular vertical ribs as in many of the 

 Catocalas ; color bright green, soon changing to dark purple. 

 Some green fluid discharged with the eggs. Hatched June 4 to 

 June 6, making this period nine days. 



Young larva;. — Length 6 mm. ; body very slender and thread- 

 like; two anterior pairs of prolegs undeveloped; walk with a 

 looping movement and with great rapidity ; very active and re- 

 fractory. Head prominent, yellowish brown ; body greenish 

 gray and almost transparent before the food plant was found. 

 They refused wild cherry, apple, maple, oak, birch, tulip, rose, 

 violet, privet, lilac, and hickory; at last they were offered ordi- 

 nary locust, Robinia pseudacacia. This they seized upon eagerly 

 and devoured voraciously, the green showing clearly through the 

 transparent skin. 



At this period all were confined in a large battery jar with a 

 cheese cloth cover. From this many would suspend themselves 

 when not eating. Later about half of them were transferred to 

 an ordinary breeding cage with dirt on the bottom. It became 

 impossible to detect any regular succession of moults, as the 

 larvse developed at very different rates and gave little evidence, 

 either in their habits or exuviae, of when these changes occurred. 



June II. No moult detected yet but the larvse had increased 

 a great deal in size. Length 8 mm. Body still slender and taper- 

 ing, especially posteriorly, shining and transparent. Head yellow 

 with groups of black spots at the sides of the jaws. Small black 

 tubercles, each emitting a single black hair, scattered over the 

 body. The head also bristles with black hairs. A broad creamy 

 colored lateral stripe and other narrower ones indicated. 

 Thoracic segments pinkish, middle of the body bright green, 

 presumably the food showing through. Posterior extremity 

 light, fleshy and transparent. Two anterior pairs of prolegs 



