FAMILY ARCTIID/E 
“All diamonded with panes of quaint device, 
Innumerable of stains, and splendid dyes, 
As are the Tiger Moth’s deep damask wings.” 
Keats. 
“There is another sort of these caterpillers, who haue no certaine place 
of abode, nor yet cannot tell where te find theyr foode, but, like vnto 
superstitious Pilgrims, doo wander and stray hither and thither (and like 
Mise), consume and eat vp that which is none of their owne; and these 
haue purchased a very apt name amongst vs Englishmen, to be called 
Palmer-worms , by reason of their wandering and rogish life (for they 
neuerstayin one place, but are euer wandering), although by reason of 
their roughnes and ruggednes some call them Beare-wormes. They can 
by no means endure to be dyeted, and to feede vpon some certaine herbes 
and flowers, but boldly and disorderly creepe ouer all, and tast of all 
plants and trees indifferently, and liue as they list.”— Topsell, History of 
Serpents, p. 105 (1608). 
This is a large family including many genera and reckon¬ 
ing, according to recent lists, over two thousand species. 
The family is represented in our fauna by thirty-eight genera, 
and at least one hundred and twenty species. 
The following characterization of the family is adapted from 
Hampson, with special reference to the genera occurring within 
our territory: 
Proboscis more or less aborted in the typical genera Arctia> 
Diacrisia , and allies, fully developed in most neotropical 
genera, and in Utetheisa and its allies; palpi slight and porrect, 
or well developed and upturned; ocelli present; eyes rarely 
hairy; antennae pectinate or ciliate; tibial spurs typically small, 
but often well developed, the hind tibiae with the medial spurs 
absent in a few genera and the fore tibiae in others with curved 
apical claw, the mid and hind tibiae rarely spined. Wings 
usually well developed. Fore wing with vein 1 a separate from 
lb; 5 from near lower angle of cell or well below angle of 
discocellulars; 6 from or from'near upper angle; areole present 
in many genera. Hind wing with vein 1 a present; 1 c absent* 
