260 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



beautiful and delicate moth is Lophocampa tessellaris, the check- 

 ered tussock-moth. It is figured and described in Smith and 

 Abbot's " Insects of Georgia," where, however, the caterpillar 

 is not correctly represented. Mr. Abbot's figure of the cater- 

 pillar has been copied in the illustrations accompanying Cuvier's 

 last edition of the " Rtgne Animal," and is there referred to 

 Latreille's genus Sericaria. This includes, besides various other 

 insects having no resemblance to the foregoing, the true tussock 

 caterpillars belonging to the next group ; but from these the cater- 

 pillars of all the kinds of Lophocampa differ essentially in being 

 much more hairy, in not having the warts on the sides of the first 

 ring longer than the rest, and in being destitute of the little retrac- 

 tile vesicles on the top of the ninth and tenth rings ; moreover their 

 chrysalids are not covered with short hairs in clusters or ridges. 

 On the other hand they agree with the Arctians in being covered 

 with warts and spreading bunches of hairs, in rolling up like a ball 

 when handled, and in the form and structure of their cocoons. The 

 position of the wings of the checkered tussock-moth, when at rest, 

 is almost exactly like that of some of the Lithosians ; but the 

 other kinds of Lophocampa do not cross the inner edges of the 

 wings ; and the bodies of all of them are much thicker and more 

 robust than those of the Lithosians. 



The third group or family of Bombyces may be called Lipa- 

 rians (LiPARiDiE*). Of the moths bearing this name, the females 

 have remarkably thick bodies, and are sometimes destitute of 

 wings, while the males are generally slender, and have rather 

 broad wings. Their feelers are very hairy, and for the most part 

 are rather longer than those of the Arctians. Their tongues are 

 very short, and invisible or concealed. Their antenna? are short, 

 bent like a bow, and doubly feathered on the under-side, the 

 feathering of those of the males being very wide, and of the 

 females mostly narrow. When at rest, these moths stretch out 

 their hairy fore-legs before their bodies, and keep their upper and 

 lower wings together over their backs, sloping a very little at the 



* From Liparis, more properly Liparus, the name of a genus of moths, belong- 

 ing to this group. This name means fat or gros3, and was probably assigned to 

 the genus on account of the thickness of the bodies of some of these moths. 



