[53] 



Report of the State Entomologist. 



195 



The Mature Caterpillar. 



The larva when full-grown is two inches long and about the thick- 

 ness of a lead pencil, cylindric, and of a coal-black color in stripes 

 alternating with orange-yellow, as follows : Along the middle of the 

 back is a black stripe, with 

 a yellow one of the same 

 width on each side of it 

 Outside of these is a ^ 

 broader black stripe fol- FlG 15 _ The yellow . striped oak cat erpillar, Anisota 

 lowed by a yellow one on senatobia. 

 each side of the back, slightly broader than the two middle ones. 

 Below these is another black stripe still wider than the one above, 

 and below this along the sides are two yellow stripes with a black one 

 between them in which the breathing-pores are placed. The upper 

 of these last two yellow stripes is somewhat wavy and less smooth 

 than those on the back, and the lower one is often widened on the fore 

 part of each segment, or sends off a branch downward and backward 

 [not shown in the figure]. Below this is an oblong yellow spot on 

 each segment, which is sometimes lengthened to unite its anterior end 

 to the yellow strijDe. The under side is black with a yellow stripe 

 along the middle, which is more or less interrupted. The legs and 

 prolegs are black. The yellow stripes are not prolonged on the pos- 

 terior and two anterior rings, but are here often replaced by small 

 yellow spots. The head is black. The skin is tough and leathery, 

 with numerous small, elevated, smooth grains, of which two on the fore 

 part of each segment, placed in the yellow stripes, are larger and are 

 sometimes elevated into small prickle-like points, and two others, simi- 

 lar to these, also occur posteriorly on each segment, but placed further 

 apart. In addition to these, there are six larger, black, shining, coni- 

 cal prickles in a transverse row around the middle of each ring, some 

 of which are occasionally forked at their tips into two sharp points. 

 On the second ring in place of the two upper prickles, are two black 

 curved cylindrical horns, equaling two of the rings in length and 

 usually standing obliquely upwards and forwards, their tips blunt 

 and shining. The last segment is rough from several prickle-like 

 points of different sizes. (Fitch, in Fifth Report Insects of New York, 

 [third to fifth reports] p. 43-44.) 



Abundance of the Caterpillar in New York. 

 Dr. Fitch, writing of it, states : " The latter part of August, 1858, 

 I observed them in greater numbers than I had ever before seen, in 

 the cemetery at Saratoga Springs, where they had stripped most of 

 the oaks of their leaves, and were then descended from the trees, 

 probably in search of food elsewhere, as few of them appeared to be 

 grown to their full size. They were everywhere crawling sluggishly 

 about upon the surface of the dry, sandy soil, and up the sides of 

 the monuments. In the paths, the dresses of the ladies sweeping 

 over them, these worms frequently adhered to and crawled up them, 

 to the great annoyance of everyone and the alarm of the more 

 timorous." 



