ground. Larvae may be found from June to October. The tachinid Lespesia 
sabroskyi Beneway is a common parasite everywhere. 
The io moth, Automeris io (F.), occurs throughout the Eastern United States and 
attacks a wide variety of trees including paper birch, cherry, black locust, quaking 
aspen, willow, beech, apple, maple, oak, hickory, elm, mulberry, dogwood, and 
sycamore. Female moths are purplish red and have a wingspread of about 75 mm; 
males are yellowish and slightly smaller. There is a large, circular, black eyespot 
with a tiny white center on the upper surface of each hindwing and a smaller but 
similar one on the lower surface of each forewing. Small larvae are gregarious. Full- 
grown larvae are about 65 mm long. The body is pale green with a broad, reddish- 
brown stripe on each side, margined with white and reddish lilac. Whorls of 
branched, black-tipped, green, poisonous spines rising from small conical tubercles 
on each body segment cause a severe nettling effect when they come into contact 
with the skin. Moths are present from May to September; larvae, from July to 
October, with two broods in the South. Winter is spent in the pupal stage in a thin, 
brown, oval cocoon, often covered with bits of dead leaves and other debris, and 
usually on the ground. 
The buck moth, Hemileuca maia (Drury), occurs from Maine and Wisconsin to 
Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, and it apparently feeds exclusively on certain 
species of oak. Adults fly mostly in October, and have black, thin-scaled, some- 
times semitransparent wings. A common white band crosses both the forewing and 
hindwing near the middle. Small larvae are gregarious. Full-grown larvae are about 
62 mm long. The head is deep reddish-brown; the body, dull brownish to black and 
covered with small, yellowish dots. Each body segment has tufts of bristles or 
compound spines arising from tubercles. The spines cause a nettling effect when in 
contact with the skin. Winter is passed in the egg stage, and larvae are present from 
May to August. A common parasite is the tachinid Leschenaultia fulvipes (Bigot). 
H. lucina Henry Edwards feeds principally on spirea in the Northeast. H. nevaden- 
sis Stretch, the Nevada buck moth, is mainly a western species that feeds on 
poplar and willow. It occurs as far east as Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska, and Texas. 
Royal moths constitute a subfamily of the Saturniidae and are medium-size to 
large, with stout bodies and large, strong wings (/029). The head is generally 
sunken in the prothorax, and the male antennae are feathery for only a little more 
than half their length. The larvae are armed with horns or spines, and some are 
sparsely hairy. The horns or spines on the second and sometimes third thoracic 
segments are long and usually curved. The larvae feed on the foliage of various 
trees, and they pupate in the ground without forming cocoons. 
The spiny oakworm, Anisota stigma (F.), feeds on oak and perhaps hazel from 
southern Ontario and Massachusetts to Florida and Texas. The adult has a wing- 
spread of 45 to 62 mm. The wings are yellowish to rusty brown, sometimes tinged 
with pink, and heavily speckled in both sexes. Each forewing has a white spot. Full- 
grown larvae are about 37 to 50 mm long. The body is tawny brown, often tinged 
with rose or pink. It is covered with tiny ivory-white specks, denticles, or granules, 
and is marked indistinctly with single dorsal and lateral stripes. There are two long, 
curved spines on the second thoracic segment. The remaining segments bear 
backward-pointing black spines. 
In the North, adults are present in June and July and the larvae from July to 
September. The winter is passed as a pupa in the ground, and there is one 
generation per year. This species is normally not very abundant, but infestations 
have occasionally covered several hectares. 
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