LEPIDOPTERA. 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 mid- 

 dle ; 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 antennae are not per- 

 ceptibly feathered beneath, while those of the other sex are 

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

 The caterpillar, 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 opercu- 

 laris by Sir James E. Smith, from the operculum or lid of its 

 cocoon. It agrees in several of its generical characters with the 

 brown and golden tailed moths of Europe (Liparis or Porthesia 

 auriflua and chrysorrhcea) ; but the caterpillar and cocoon are en- 

 tirely different from those of the above named insects. On ac- 

 count 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 * opercularis, the rabbit tussock-moth f. 



The next group may be called Lasiocampians (Lasiocam- 

 pad^:), after the principal genus | included in it, the name of 

 which signifies hairy caterpillar. The Lasiocampians are woolly, 

 and very thick-bodied moths, distinguished by the want of the 

 bristles and hooks that hold together the fore and hind wings of 



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



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



t To Lasiocamjia belong the European moths called Rubi, Trifolii, Quercus, 

 Polaris, Dumcti, &c. I have not seen any insects like these in Massachusetts, 

 and believe that such are seldom if ever to be found in the United States. 



34 



