POECILOCAMPA POPULI. 465 



head very small and hairy ; thorax stout and hairy ; abdomen abbreviated, tufted 

 in the male, and pilose laterally in both sexes, the female without a downy mass at 

 tbe apex ; wings entire, elongate, acute, subdiaphanous, not reversed during repose ; 

 legs with the femora and tibiae pilose. Larva slightly hairy, a little depressed, 

 maculated, not gregarious ; pupa short, obtuse, enclosed in a silken folliculus, 

 superficially subterranean. 



After thus diagnosing the genus, Stephens remarks on the necessity 

 of separating it from Eriogaster (lanestris), observing that its single 

 species (pojmli) differs in habit and structure as much from the latter 

 genus as does Clisiocampa from Lasiocampa. He observes that the $ 

 antennae are more densely pectinated and stouter than in Eriogaster, 

 the females destitute of the woolly anal tuft, thus also differing from 

 Cnethocampa [processioned), which, with Eriogaster, it resembles in wing- 

 texture. He further notes that the larvas live solitarily, that the pupa 

 is obtuse, and the eggs naked. As only populi is placed in the genus 

 it necessarily becomes its type. Kirby places two other species in the 

 genus — subpurpurea, Butl., from Tokei, and habitus, H.-Edw., from 

 Vera Cruz. The inclusion of these suggests that Kirby's genus may 

 be heterotypical. We have already shown (ante., p. 450) that Poecilo- 

 campa is the correct name for the genus, and that Grote's suggestion 

 that, if catax and lanestris be congeneric, populi must become the 

 type of Eriogaster, Germ., is inadmissible, since pjopuli disagrees with 

 the diagnosis of the genus Eriogaster in which Germar placed it. 

 Meyrick considers populi as congeneric with lanestris, rubi and crataegi, 

 evidently uniting them on the general character of the neuration, 

 and thus showing want of knowledge of the nature of the structural 

 differences in the early stages. Aurivillius observes that Poecilocampa 

 differs from Trichiurain the following points : The elevated part of the 

 forehead is broader and shorter ; the middle tibiae without spurs ; hind 

 tibia with two very tiny (hardly to be discovered) terminal spurs ; the 

 wings thinly scaled, almost entirely with very characteristic scales, 

 which are cleft almost as far as the base into 3-4 long hairs ; the fore- 

 wings longer and narrower than Trichiura. He further gives the 

 following characters : 



Neuration : 8 of forewings from the front margin of middle cell shortly before 

 the apex, from the apex, or from the stalk of 6 and 7, or very rarely united with 7 

 from the apex ; the stalk of 9 and 10 much longer than the free part of the nervures ; 

 these both run into the costa, or 9 rarely into the apex. 4 and 5 of hindwings from 

 one point or united in a very short stalk ; 7 and 8 from one point or often with a 

 long stalk from the front margin of middle cell. Antennae : c? antennae with long 

 pectinations ; ? antennae with short, appressed pectinations, wanting in basal 

 part. Abdomen : ? without anal wool. Larva : The larva has thin short hairs 

 and is somewhat flattened. The dorsal warts of segments 1-10 are entirely wanting, 

 the 11th segment is slightly raised. All, laterally, underneath the spiracles, project 

 in wart-form, and above the legs stand 1-2 warts. In this it somewhat reminds 

 one of the Gastropacha larvas, but all the members are uniformly coloured 

 and marked. Pupa: Naked, red-brown, with numerous "fastening-bristles" on 

 cremaster ; rests in a firm cocoon, mixed with earth. 



Poecilocampa populi, Linne. 

 Synonymy.— Species : Populi, Linn., " Sys. Nat.," 10th ed., p. 502, no. 32 (1758); 

 12th ed., p. 818, no. 34 (17G7) ; " Faun. Suec," 2nd ed., p. 291, no. 1101 (1761) ; 

 Fab., " Sys. Ent.," p. 560, no. 38 (1775) ; " Sp. Ins.," ii., p. 179, no. 54 (1781) ; 

 " Mant.," ii., p. 113, no. 62 (1787) ; "Ent. Sys.," iii., pt. 1, p. 429 (1793) ; Schiff., 

 "Sys. Verz.," p. 58 (1776) ; Esp., " Schmett. Eur.," iii., pi. xxv., figs. 1-8, p. 136 

 (1784); Bork., " Sys. Besch.," iii., p. 129, no. 35 (1790); Hb., "Eur. Schmett.," 

 iii., p. 141, fig. 163 (? 1800) ; " Larvae, &c," iii., M, b (by error), figs, la-c (? 1803) ; 

 " Verz.," p. 188 ('? 1822) ; Donov., " Nat. Hist.," ix., p. 41, pi. 307 (1800) ; Schrk., 



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