June, 1896.] 
Dyar : On the Origin of Pericopid^e. 
71 
warts dusky, those on the purple segments blue-black; thoracic feet and 
leg plates black; hair black, strong and stiff, singly from the warts, 
spinulated and pointed. The arrangement of the tubercles is normal 
for the primitive first stage of the Noctuina. (Plate III, fig. 2). 
Stage II .—Head .8 mm. Warts many haired, the hairs black ex¬ 
cept a pair of long white ones which overhang the head, arising from 
the upper wart on joint 3. The warts have a central hair and radiating 
crown of secondary hairs except iv, which is single haired. Wart vi 
present, large. On, the thorax there are two warts above the stigmatal 
wart closely approximated. The coloration is as before. 
Stage III .—Head 1.1 mm. The dark segments of the body are 
mottled by the general orange tint; otherwise as before. This differs 
from the next stage in being more decidedly orange, the blackish shad¬ 
ings more livid. 
Stage IV .—Head 1.6 mm. Like the mature larva. 
Stage V .—Head 2.2 mm. No change except in size. 
Stage VI .—Head 2.8 mm. From the width of the head this is an 
interpolated stage, but it was persistently passed through by all the 
larvae observed at first. Later some examples of a brood omitted it and 
in these the width of head in Stage V was about 2.5 mm 
Stage HI .—General appearance beautiful bright crimson and shin¬ 
ing violet blue, sparsely hairy. Head and body crimson red, not shin¬ 
ing ; warts shining red, certain of them shining violet-blue, the areas 
around these warts discolored, blackish. Spiracles pale orange. On 
joints 2 to 4, only the two lowest warts bluish ; on 5, 6, 9, 10 and n all 
the warts blue, the blackish shades predominating subdorsally; on joints 
7 , 8 and 12 warts iv to vi bluish. This distribution of color is subject 
to some variation. Hairs sparse, only 8-10 to a wart, stiff, barbuled, 
rather short, black; from wart i on joint 3 and from i on joint 13 a 
single stiff white hair, four times as long as any other, projects forward 
and back, probably serving as a tactile organ. In many instances one 
or both of the posterior hairs are missing. Warts i to vi and leg-plate 
normal, iv rather small; on joint 3, i and iia nearly fused but separable, 
more remote on 4; ii b rudimentary, a single hair; iii a single hair; 
iv + v and vi normal warts; on joint 2, hairs from the anterior and 
posterior edges of cervical shield, a wart before the spiracle and a sub- 
ventral wart. Head setae simple (Plate III, fig. 4); width 3.2—3.4 mm. 
The mature larva is figured on the plate (fig. 3). 
Cocoon .—This can scarcely be called such. It consists of a few 
threads which serve to entangle the hooks on the head and cremaster. 
