8TATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 455 



HICKORY. LEAVES. 



whilst in Selene no sucli ring occurs. The spot on the fore wings is much nar- 

 rower and of an elliptic form, but has all the parts of that upon the hind 

 wings. In Selene this spot appears to be more distant from the fore margin 

 of the wing than it is in Luna, and is destitute of the brownish red streak 

 which we see in Luna extending from the outer corner of this spot obliquely 

 forward to the border of the wing. 



181. Polyphemus moth, Hyahphora Polyphemus^ Fab. (Lepidoptera. Bomby- 

 cidae.) 



In August and the fore part of September, a large thick-bodied 

 worm closely resembling that of the foregoing species, 3.50 long 

 and of an apple green color, not darker green beneath but having 

 a pale yellow stripe along the middle on its under side, and on 

 each segment six bright orange conical points, three on each side, 

 with a sulphur yellow stripe from the lower to the middle one of 

 these points, except on the anterior segments, and the upper 

 points sometimes silvery on their outer sides; its head and six 

 anterior feet of a clay-yellow color; crawling along the under 

 sides of the limbs with its back downwards, its body being too 

 hea\y to be sustained in an upright posture; when at rest and 

 contracted each segment strongly humped and forming an angular 

 transverse ridge; constructing a cocoon in all respects like that 

 of the Luna moth, which gives out the perfect insect the middle 

 or latter part of May; this of a dull ochre or brownish yellow 

 color with a glassy eye-like spot near the middle of each wing, 

 crossed by a slender line and margined by a yellow succeeded by 

 a black ring, wliich last is much broader on the hind wings and 

 on its forward part is widened into a large cap-shaped spot as 

 long as wide, with its concave end shaded into a bluish-white 

 crescent; a dusky band faintly margined with white on its hind 

 bide crosses both wings forward of their liind margin, beyond 

 which tlie ground color is commonly paler; anterior margin gray, 

 which color is continued from tlie wings across the thorax in the 

 form of a ])and. Width 5.00 to 6.50. A specimen in the col- 

 lection of I. A. Lintner of Schoharie is much the smallest I have 

 ever s^^w^ measuring only four inches across its spread wings. 



I have met with tlie larva of this insect on walnut, butternut, 

 thorn and linden or basswood, and Dr. Harris (Treatise p. 298) 

 records its occurrence on oaks and elms also. It sometimes at- 

 taches its cocoon partly to the side of a limb or sometimes with 



