714 General Notes. [July, 
ENTOMOLOGY. 
UNUSUAL NUMBER OF LEGS IN THE CATERPILLAR OF LAGOA.— 
Lagoa crispata Pack. is an interesting moth forming a connecting 
link between the Dasychiræ (Orgyia) and the Te 
represented by Limacodes and its allies. As 
marked in our Synopsis of Bombycidz (1864): “When 
we observe the larva we would easily mistake it for a 
hairy Limacodes larva, for like them the head is re- 
tracted, the body is short, and the legs are so rudimen- 
tary as to impart a gliding motion to the caterpillar when 
it moves,” After describing the transformations, we 
Lagoa. added: “There are seven pairs of abdominal or false 
legs, which are short and thick. The first pair of enay or true 
legs are much shorter than the two succeeding pair 
Two years ago we found the fully fed caterpillars aa also those 
before the last molt on scrub-oaks in Providence, and again noticed 
them while walking, then carefully examined them after placing 
them in alcohol, and again examined the specimens during the 
past winter. It is well known that caterpillars have no more than 
five pairs of “proplegs,” “false legs” or abdominal feet, as they 
are variously called; and so far as we have been able to learn the 
present caterpillar is the only one which has additional legs, even 
though rudimentary. As in all lepidopterous larvez, there are ten 
abdominal segments, In the larve before the last molt there is a 
pair of rudimentary abdominal legs on the second abdominal 
segment, forming soft tubercles about one-third as large as the 
succeeding normal feet; the crown of hooks was wanting, but a 
tubercle on the anterior side corresponding to a similar one on 
the normal feet had five or six well marked stout spines, also two 
or three scattered ones in the middle, the tubercle being rounded, 
convex, not flattened at the end. 
On the sixth segment, following the fourth pair of normal ab- 
dominal legs, is a pair of tubercles like those on the second seg- 
ment and exactly corresponding in situation with the normal legs; 
situated externally are two long straight spines, but none homo- 
logous with those forming the crown. At the base in front of 
each tubercle is a tuft of sparse hairs, and on the outside is a 
chitinous spot bearing a dense tuft of hairs; these two tufts pre- 
cisely agree in Saton and appearance with those at the base of 
normal abdomin 
In the fully fed caterpillar the tubercles are exactly the same. 
It thus appears that in the Lagoa larva the first abdominal segment 
-is footless; the second bears rudimentary feet; segments e bear 
eime ; the seventh bears a pair of rudimentary legs; 
ts eight and nine are footless, while the og bears the 
ip developed asal or fifth pair of genuine propleg 
= While eei two pairs of tubercles differ from z normal legs 
