[57] 



Report of the State Entomologist. 



199 



The eggs hatch in from a week to ten days. The young caterpillars 

 feed together in swarms, and, according to Harris, "have their regular 

 times for eating and for rest, and when they have finished their meals 

 they cluster closely together along the twigs and branches; if dis- 

 turbed they raise the forepart of their body and shake the head to 

 signify their displeasure." They undergo four moltings, and their 

 five stages seem to average about nine days each. 



During the latter part of July and in August the defoliation of the 

 oaks that they cause is noticed. An oviposition extending over three 

 or four weeks will naturally give varied degrees of growth of 

 the larvae met with abroad. Thusy notes made by me in 1869 show on 

 August twentieth, larvae quite small, some passing through their 

 fourth molt, and others in their last stage; August twenty-seventh, 

 full-grown larvae; September eighth, matured larvae on their travels 

 prior to pupation; September fourteenth, still abundant; thirtieth, 

 a few seen; the locality was not visited in October. 



The larger number probably enter the ground for pupation during 

 the second and third weeks of September. They bury to a depth of 

 three or four inches, where they shape a small and simple cell in 

 which to undergo their change to pupae.* 



When the time for the last stage in the series of transformations 

 has arrived, the pupa, aided by the circlet of spines or teeth with 

 which the front of each of its free-moving segments is provided, and 

 by a strong bifid anal spine, forces itself to the surface and partly out 

 of the ground, where it is held while the moth bursts its case and 

 emerges. The females are at once attended by the males that have 

 preceded and are awaiting them, and the pairing usually occurs in the 

 grass beneath the oaks, according to Mr. Clarkson, before there is 

 time to ascend the trunks. Soon thereafter the eggs are laid, as before 

 described, on the lower surface of the leaves of the terminal twigs of 

 the branches nearest the ground, seldom exceeding an elevation of 

 ten or twelve feet. 



Associated Species. 

 The two other species of Anisota, viz., stigma Fabr. and pellucida 

 Sm.-Abb.,f also feed on the oaks, but they never occur in injurious num- 



* It is of interest in this connection to mention that Anisota Heiligbrodti Harvey 

 (Canad. Entomol, ix, 1877, p. no), since referred, by Grote, with bicolor Harris, bisecta 

 Lintn., etc., to the genus Sphingicampa, has a pupation above ground in a double cocoon 

 like that of Cecropia and Promethea, but net-like instead of solid, and attached to the 

 mesquite (Entomologica Americana, i, 1885, p. 60). 



t Mr. Grote, in his last Check List, and in a list of Ceratocampadce, etc., published in 

 1874, has cited pellucida as a synonym of Virginiensis of Drury. I do not know why this 

 reference was made, and believe that it has not been accepted by those entomologists, 

 at least, who are unwilling to abandon a name, particularly when expressive and char- 

 acteristic, as in this instance, which has been in general use for more than a century, 

 unless the necessity for so doing is clear and unquestionable, and not simply resting 

 on probabilities. 



