318 LEP1DOPTERA. 



inata. and between these stripes are faint longitudinal lines. 

 It fed on clover and went into the chrysalis state Sept. 21st.'* 



The two remaining genera have broad wings, and are black- 

 ish, with numerous transverse waved lines. The edges of the 

 wings are scalloped, the palpi are very long, and the head nar- 

 row between the eyes, thus showing their affinities to the- 

 rinilu'nida'. The species of Homoptera are of a dark ash 

 color. //. lii)ita Drury has a lunate cliseal spot. 



Erebus is a gigantic moth, with the outer margin very 

 oblique and a large, incised, discal spot and sublimate margi- 

 nal spots. Our large, blackish species, dark as night, is Er< j - 

 liitx odora Drury ; it expands about five inches. The magnifi- 

 cent, pale gray Erebus Agrippina Cramer (E. strix of 

 Fabricius) inhabits Brazil ; it expands nearly ten inches. 



JE Latreille (Geometrido 1 } . The Geornetrids are- 

 easily known by their slender, finely scaled bodies and broad 

 thin wings, which in repose are not folded roof-like over the 

 body, but are spread horizontally and scarcely overlap each 

 other. The antenna' are usually pectinated. They are deli- 

 cate, pale, often greenish or yellowish moths, and fly more by 

 day than the Noctuids. The palpi are short and slender, and 

 the tongue, or maxillre, is weak and short. 



The larvae rarely have more than ten legs, some having four- 

 teen, and a few (Metrocampa and Ellopia) twelve. Thus from 

 the absence of legs on the basal rings of the abdomen, the larva? 

 are loopers, or geometers, as grasping the object on which they 

 are walking with their fore legs, they bring the hind legs close 

 up to the fore legs, thus making a loop like the Greek letter 

 Omega. They usually let themselves down by spinning a 

 silken thread, hence they are sometimes called " Drop- worms.'* 

 When about to pupate, the larva either spins a slight, loose, 

 silken cocoon, or conceals itself under a covering of leaves 

 fastened together with silk, or buries itself in the ground 

 without any cocoon, while Harris states that a very fe\v fasten 

 themselves to the stems of plants and are changed to cl inva- 

 lids, which hang naked and suspended by the tail. The pupa- 

 is long, slender, conical, generally smooth, sometimes with 

 lateral protuberances on the head, and usually dark In-own, but 



