[65] 



Report of the State Entomologist. 



207 



Walsh: in Pract. Entomol., ii, 186G, p. 21 (immunity to frosts, etc.) 



Riley: 2d Kept. Ins. Mo., 1870, p. 112, f. 82 a (larva), b (imago) ; in Rept. 

 Comm. Agricul. for 1883, p. 124-5, pi. 1, figs. 3, 3a, pi. 12, figs. 2a, 2b 

 (Ceramica — description, habits and transformations). 



Lintner : in 26th Rept. N. Y. St. Mus. N. H. for 1872 — Ent. Contrib., Ill, 

 1874, p. 137-8 (Ceramica — larval description and habits) ; 2d Rept. 

 Ins. N. Y., 1885, p. 1-2 (on beets); 4th Rept. do., 1888, p. 16 (on cur- 

 rant); Bull. N. Y. St. Mus. N. H., No. 6, 1888, p. 21, f. 24. 



Grote : in Bull. Buff. Soc. Nat. Sci. — List Noct., 1874, pp. 22, 123 {Ceramica) ; 

 Check List N. A. Moths, 1882, p. 26, No..343 (Mamestra). 



Thomas: 6th Rept. Ins. 111. [1877], p. 60; 9th Rept. do., 1880, p. 51-2 

 (Ceramica). 



French : in 7th Rept. Ins. 111., 1878, p. 226 (Ceramica). 

 Coquillett : in 10th Rept. Ins. 111., 1881, p. 185, figs, a, b (Ceramica). 

 Packard: in Amer. Nat., xviii, 1884, p. 1266-7 (larval stages described). 

 Caulfield: in Canad. Entomol., xvi, 1884, p. 122-3 (Ophion parasite). 

 Weed : in Bull. 111. St. Lab. N. H., iii, 1887, p. 2 (Microplitis parasite). 



This conspicuously marked caterpillar, shown, together with the 

 moth produced by it in 

 Figure 18, which is so 

 injurious to many kinds 

 of vegetation, has often 

 been described and figured 

 in its mature form, but 

 only a few brief notes of 

 its earlier stages have been 

 given. Examples sent by 

 Mr. George T. Powell, 

 from Ghent, N. Y., June 8, 

 1887, found feeding in 

 company on a currant 



bush, enable me to sup- 



. . , , n . Fig. 18.— Mamestra picta, showing the moth and 



ply the deficiency. itB caterpillar . 



The Young Larva. 

 The larvae were 0.35 inch in length, and cylindrical in form. The 

 head is pale red, and nearly as broad as the body. The body is 

 traversed dorsally by a bluish-white mesial stripe, except as it is 

 interrupted at the incisures on the posterior segments by the coales- 

 cing of the two well-defined black stripes that, commencing on the 

 white collar of the first segment, elsewhere border it. Below this is a 

 distinct bright yellow subdorsal stripe, broader than the black one 

 above it, in which, on the hinder part of each segment, is a small, 

 black setiferous tubercle — its seta a little longer than the breadth of 

 the stripe ; these tubercles, on the posterior segments, are merged 



