314 MAINS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I908. 



this outbreak in Maine, at least, the species has shown a decided 

 preference for beech. The antlers (See Figure 16) are lost 

 after the first few day of its life when it is very tiny so that 

 this would not seem a fortunate popular name for a caterpillar 

 which comparatively few people would even see until the antlers 

 had been shed. Then too, other closely allied species bear 

 antlers as young larvae, and Heterocampa biundata, which 

 retains them through three stages, feeds also upon maple.* 



The "purple marked forest caterpillar" ** would seem more 

 descriptive of the older caterpillars, though the dark markings 

 on this species in Maine while exceedingly variable were more 

 uniformly reddish brown than purple. The careful larval 

 descriptions of Doctor Packard * and Doctor Dyar *** indi- 

 cate that purple marked caterpillars were also the 'exception 

 among those examined by them, the former not mentioning 

 purple and the latter describing it in that color for "a peculiar 

 variety of guttivitta." It is very difficult, however, to strike 

 upon a stable name for a variable species and except for the 

 length of "the purple marked forest caterpillar" this name' might 

 be a convenient designation. 



The family Notodontidae to which the species in question 

 belongs has been popularly named "The Prominents." 



"In some species the front wing has a prominence or back- 

 ward projecting lobe on the inner margin, which has suggested 

 the common name of Prominents for these insects. The name 

 is more generally appropriate, however, for the larvae, as a much 

 larger proportion of them than of the adults bear striking 

 prominences." **** 



We have among related species popular names based upon 

 larval characteristics as "unicorn prominent," "long-horned 

 prominent;" and "saddled prominent," seeming appropriate and 

 convenient enough a name, has been settled upon mutually by 

 the Maine Experiment Station and by the Maine Department 

 of Agriculture, in order that it may bear but one popular appel- 

 lation in this State. 



. * Packard. Bombyeine Moths. 



** E. D. Sanderson, Newspaper circular. August 1908. 

 *** Psyche VI, p. 178, 1891. 

 **** J. H. Comstock, Manual for the Study of Insects, p. 263. 



