302 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



form a forked appendage or tail to the hinder part of the body. 

 Hence such caterpillars are often described as having only four- 

 teen legs, although the wanting members really exist in a modi- 

 fied form. Moreover the caterpillars of some of the Notodonti- 

 ans seem to be without legs, and even on close examination only 

 the soles of the feet can be perceived. The Notodontians are 

 found chiefly on trees and shrubs, the leaves of which they eat. 

 When about to be transformed, the most of them enclose them- 

 selves in cocoons, which are often very hard and thick, made 

 either of silk, or of silk mixed with fragments of wood and bark ; 

 some make thin, semitransparent, and filmy cocoons under a 

 covering of leaves ; some merely cover themselves with grains 

 of earth, held together by silken threads ; and a very few go into 

 the ground to transform, without making cocoons. The chrysa- 

 lids taper behind, and are not provided with transversed notched 

 ridges on the back. The moths close their wings over the sides 

 of the body like a sloping roof, when at rest ; but the front edges 

 of the hind-wings never extend beyond those of the fore-wings, 

 and the bristles and hooks for holding the wings together, are 

 never wanting. The antennae are rather long ; those of the males 

 are generally doubly feathered on the under-side ; but the feath- 

 ery fringe is often very narrow towards the tips, and, in the fe- 

 males, is always narrower than in the other sex ; in a few of both 

 sexes the antennas are not feathered at all. The feelers and 

 tongue, though short, are generally visible. The body is rather 

 long, and not very thick. In what follows, a few only of the 

 most remarkable species will be described. 



Among the many odd-shaped caterpillars belonging to this fam- 

 ily, not the least remarkable are those which are called Lima- 

 codes, that is, slug-like, on account of their seeming want of 

 feet, their very slow gliding motions, and the slug-like form of 

 some of them. In these caterpillars the body is very short and 

 thick, and approaches more or less to an oval form, it is naked, 

 or, in some kinds, covered only with short down ; the head is 

 small, and can be drawn in and concealed under the first ring ; 

 the six fore-legs are also small and retractile ; and the other legs 

 consist only of little fleshy elevations, without claws or hooks. 

 The under-side of the body is smeared with a sticky fluid, which 



