99 



DESCRIPTION. 



Larva.— A slender caterpillar from 1^ to 1\ inches in length. 

 General color a soft dusky gray, with a peculiar silky look, dark- 

 ening forward to the head and first thoracic segment, which are 

 shinins: black. Distinguished especially by large, irregular, shin- 

 ing white or dusky areas on the thorax. 



Body slender, a little widest in front. Head but little narrower 

 than first thoracic segment ; shining, irregularly transversely rugose, 

 most so on the frontal area; anterior part of frontal triangle with 

 a conspicuous semicircular groove opening forward; head with the 

 usual Y-shaped mark; outside of the arms of this a parallel groove 

 on each side, forming a V, open posteriorly, the anterior ends of 

 these grooves curving inward to the ends of the clypeus. The 

 latter pale and soft; labrum brown, base paler, highly protractile, 

 because of the flexibility of the clypeus. Labium membranous, 

 retractile, with a very long, median, spine-like spinneret, and two 

 slender palpi, three-jointed, the first joint a thick truncate cone, 

 the second slender, cylindrical, the third minute, about one third 

 as long as the second, with a very long tapering spine-like hair at 

 the tip. Maxillae thick, fleshy; palpus two-jointed, inner lobe with 

 five or six slender pes-like teeth distributed upon its fleshy 

 surface. 



Surface of the head with scattered long hairs. Antennae extraor- 

 dinarily long and slender when protruded, but remarkably pro- 

 tractile, the first joint being white and membranous, and about as 

 long as the third, which may be wholly retracted within it. 

 Mandibles nearly black, blunt; lower mouth parts pale, except the 

 labium and the distal portions of the maxillae, which are darker. 

 Ocelli six, in an irregular curve opening backward immediately 

 behind the base of the mandible. 



First segment shining black, with obscure irregular transverse 

 rugosities, front margin brown; posterior lateral angles with a 

 large oblique black spiracle. Second segment chiefly shining 

 white, with three V-shaped markings of the ground color, — one 

 median, opening backward, and two lateral, opening to the front. 

 Suture between second and third segments, as well as anterior 

 margin of the third, also shining white, with a large circular white 

 area on each side of the middle line. Sides of this segment with 

 a large shining white patch, bifid posteriorly by a process of the 

 ground color. Remaining segments from the fourth to the eleventh 

 with four dorsal, silvery, shining piliferous spaces, within which 

 the hair springs from a minute black point, these spaces gradually 

 diminishing in size from before backward. On the sides of these 

 segments two rows of similar shining sx)ots, one above the 

 stigmata, the other below; the former composed of one spot to 

 each segment above and behind the spiracle; the latter of two 

 such spots below the spiracle, one before and one behind. From 

 the sixth to the ninth segment a small black pit behind and be- 

 low the shining piliferous area of the upper row, forming a 



