264 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



black pencils or plumes on the first ring, one on each side of the 

 fifth ring, and one on the top of the eleventh ring ; the head is 

 black ; and the retractile warts on the top of the ninth and tenth 

 rings are red. These caterpillars live on various trees and 

 shrubs, and are stated, by Miss Dix, in Professor Silliman's 

 " Journal of Science" *, to have been " very destructive to the 

 thorn hedges in Rhode Island," "appearing very early in sum- 

 mer, and not disappearing till late in November." The cocoons 

 resemble those of the white-marked vaporer ( Orgyia leuco- 

 stigma), and the females, after they have come forth, never leave 

 the outside of their cocoons, but lay their eggs upon them and 

 die there. 



In the early part of August another kind of tussock-moth is 

 sometimes seen on fences or on the sides of buildings. Both 

 sexes are winged, the females differing from the males only in 

 being of a larger size, and in having antennae which are not dis- 

 tinctly feathered. They are of a brownish gray color ; their 

 fore-wings are traversed by two zigzag brown lines, and these are 

 crossed by a straight brown line running parallel to the inner mar- 

 gin, and there is a large pale spot near the middle of the front 

 margin ; on the top of the abdomen are two little tufts composed 

 of black glittering scales. The wings expand from one inch and 

 a half to two inches. These moths belong to the genus Dasy- 

 chira, a word signifying thick hand, and applied to insects of this 

 kind on account of the thick covering of hairs on their fore-legs. 

 The present species seems to be the hucopluea, or brown and 

 white tussock-moth, figured in Mr. Abbot's sumptuous work on 

 the insects of Georgia. The caterpillar I have not seen ; but in 

 the figure of it, given by Mr. Abbot, it is represented of a green- 

 ish yellow color, clothed with yellow hairs on the sides, with four 

 yellow brush-like tufts on the back, and two brownish pencils on 

 the first, eleventh, and twelfth rings. It is 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 



* Vol. XIX., P . 62. 



