TENT-CATERPILLARS. 119 
164. The California^ tent-caterpillar. 
Clisiocampa calif omica Packard. 
Feeding on the scrubby oak, in abundance near San Francisco, a tent-caterpillar 
■with a black head and a double rusty reddish dorsal line, often inclosing a long pale 
blue mediau dash, one to each segment ; and with two lateral pale blue irregular 
spots ; appearing from the middle of March till the middle of April. 
I extract the following notice of its habits by Mr. Henry Edwards : 
The moth lays its eggs in Jane, and they must remain unhatched until the follow- 
ing spring. Just when the young shoots of the oaks (Quercus agrifolia Nee) begin to 
appear, the larvte make their appearance also, spinning thin and irregular webs over 
the branches of the trees. In these webs they house mostly during the heat of the 
day, but sally forth in the evening and at night for food. In this way they will soon 
strip a tree of its leaves, though it is well to say that the oaks do not seem to be per- 
manently affected, as they soon send forth fresh shoots, and toward the time that the 
caterpillars undergo their change to the chrysalis they are green aud gay again. The 
larvae retain the shelter of their web until after the third molt, when they wander 
away singly, are found everywhere, becoming sometimes a complete nuisance in gar- 
dens and fields. They feed in their more mature stages upon many plants besides 
the oak, eating with avidity willows, ash, JZsculus californica, Phatinia arbutifolia, 
Arbutus menziesii, as well as apple and pear trees. Toward the end of May they spin 
their cocoons, seeming to have no choice of locality, but fixing themselves wherever 
they may chance to be, either on walls, palings, trunks or branches of trees, stems 
of grapes, or among the leaves of herbaceous plants. The time in the chrysalis state 
is about eighteen to twenty-one days, so that the moths emerge and are in the great- 
est abundance about the middle of June. 
" This species," says Mr. Stretch (in Papilio, vol. i, No. 5), " is exceed- 
ingly abundant in the neighborhood of San Francisco, and is probably 
widely distributed." Near Sau Francisco its favorite food-plant is a 
species of scrubby oak, Q. agrifolia, but it is sometimes found on the 
blackberry (Bubus) and other shrubby plants. Its depredations have 
lately, Professor Rivers writes me, extended to the orchards. The 
nests, according to Mr. Stretch, may be seen in warm localities as early 
as the middle of March, while in those more exposed they are not seen 
till the middle of April ; but both these dates are sufficiently early to 
protect the orchards. The larvae pupate in about six weeks from the 
egg, and the imago appears in about a fortnight. 
The following notes have been received from Professor Riley : 
Received April 20, 1877, from Mr. E. W. Hilgard, Berkeley County, Cal., several 
larvae and pupae of above insect. 
Corresp., 1869. p. 292) the larva. Morris (Synop. Lepid. N. A., 1862, p. 326) quotes 
Harris's descriptions (1841) of the larva aud imago. Riley (Amer. Entom., July-Aug., 
1870, v. 2, pp. 261-265, and 3d Rept. State Entom. Mo., 1871, pp. 121-127) describes 
eggs and egg-mass, larva and imago, giving, in addition to the food-plants men- 
tioned above, Fraxinus, Tilia, Rosa, Carya, plum, and peach. Saunders (Can. Entom., 
July, 1872, v. 4, p. 134) repeats Riley's figures and (op. cit., Aug., 1877, v. 9, p. 159), 
gives another figure of the larva, adding Acer, Crataegus, and Fag us to the food- 
plants; later Saunders (op. cit, Feb., 1878, v. 10, pp. 21-23) gives notes on the eggs 
of this species and of C. americana, and on the destruction of these eggs by mites. 
The larva of this species eats leaves of Beiula alba. 
