365 



said to live on the leaves of various kinds of oaks. The chrysalis is of a 

 brownish color, is hairy, and has four oval spots covered with branny scales 

 on the back. 



The last of the tussock-moths to be described is of a very pale [265] 

 straw-yellow color; the thorax and abdomen are very woolly, and the fore- 

 wings are marked with a small black spot towards the tip, and several short 

 crinkled black and brown lines on the middle; all the legs are very hairy, 

 and the feet are black. Both sexes are provided with wings, expanding 

 from one inch and a half to one inch and three quarters, or more. 

 The females are invariably larger than the males, and their antenna 

 are not perceptibly feathered beneath, while those of the other sex are 

 widely feathered in a double row, from one end to the other. The cater- 

 pillar, according to Mr. Abbot, is covered with brownish hairs, which rise 

 gradually on each side to a ridge along the middle of the back, giving 

 to it a shape like the roof of a house; the hairs grow in clusters, and are 

 short and even at the ends as if sheared off to a uniform length, except 

 those at the hinder extremity, which form a kind of bushy tail. It feeds 

 on the Viburnum or hobble-bush, the sassafras, and the plum-tree. In the 

 month of September it makes a small tough silken cocoon of an oval 

 shape, having a flat circular lid at one end, and fastens it to the side 

 of a twig. The moth does not come forth till the month of July in 

 the following summer. It was named opercularis by Sir James E. Smith, 

 from the operculum or lid of its cocoon . It agrees in several of its gen- 

 erical characters with the brown and golden tailed moths of Europe 

 (Liparis or Portliesia auriflua and clirtjsorrlicca) ; but the caterpillar and 

 cocoon are entirely different from those of the above named insects. 

 On account of the short and squat form, and the little bushy tail of the 

 caterpillar, and the thick woolly body and legs of the moth, I call it. Lagoa 1 

 opercularis, the rabbit tussock-moth. 2 



[The paragraph on pp. 270-1 of the 1st edition, giving various methods 

 of destroying Clisiocampa americana, is entirely recast on pp. 374-5 of the 

 3d edition.] 



[Insert after first paragraph on p. 423, 3d Ed.] 



[306.] Here should be placed some insects belonging to Mr. Doubleday's 

 proposed genus Balia, whose caterpillars strongly resemble those of Cerura, 



1 Lagoa comes from the Greek, and signifies of, or belonging to, a rabbit or hare. 



2 It is possible that this insect may be the Bombyx Americana of Fabricius. 



