51 
So far as known the larvae are always of a general greenish color, 
variously marked. 
THE PAINTED MAMESTRA.— Ceramica picta. Harr. 
The larva of this species, which is khown as “The ZelraT is one 
of our most beautiful caterpillars. When fully grown it is nearly two 
inches long, almost uniform in size throughout, with the segments 
more than usually elongated, the head small and short; sixteen footed. 
It is marked throughout its entire length with very distinct stripes, al¬ 
ternately black and yellow arranged as follows; a rather broad velvety- 
black median stripe along the back, narrowly margined on each side 
» with white; next to this, on each side, there is a bright yellow stripe 
about equal in width to the former, in the middle of this, on each seg- % 
ment, there is a small black dot; next below this comes a rather broad 
blackish line, crossed transversly by numerous minute white and some¬ 
what netted lines; next below this is another bright yellow stripe; be¬ 
low this, and just above the legs, is a narrow white stripe profusely 
sprinkled with black dots. The head, ventral surface and legs are pale 
reddish-brown or tawny. The surface of the body is almost entirely 
free from hairs. Dr. Harris describes the broad lateral stripe as “white 
traversed by rune-like black lines.” It is difficult to tell which pre¬ 
dominates in this stripe, the white or the black; the stripe is composed 
of numerous minute alternating white and black lines forming a kind 
of net-work. 
Dr. Packard gives the following characteristics of the younger stages 
of the caterpillar: 
“In the young, before the first molt, the head is as wide as the body, 
pale greenish, while the body is pale greenish, with a double, dark, 
livid, dorsal stripe divided by a pale median line, and three lateral 
dark stripes, the upper-most of which is the narrower; five pairs of 
abdominal feet, the first pair one-half as large as the fourth pair. The 
body is tuberculated, being much smoother in the fully grown larva. 
Length a little over a line. After the first molt, when the worm is a 
little over three lines in length, the colors are much as in the fully- 
fed larva, being deep yellow, with a broad, black, dorsal band, some¬ 
times entire and sometimes divided by a median pale line. A lateral 
area is marbled with transverse, short black and white lines; and with 
a row of conspicuous black spots. A row of dark spots down on the 
sides. Head reddish testaceous; abdominal fept reddish. After the 
the third molt, when the caterpillar is one inch long (observed Sep¬ 
tember 16), the markings are nearly the same as the mature caterpil¬ 
lar. 
The moth, which expands an inch and a half, has the front wings 
of a bright purplish-brown color, with a slightly paler brown shade in 
the middle; the usual spots are rather dim, with a third oval spot be¬ 
hind the round one, more or less distinctly marked; they are all edged 
