304 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Abbot * is oblong oval, striped with purple and yellow, with 

 twelve fleshy horns, of an orange color, on the sides of its back, 

 namely six on the forepart, two on the middle, and four on the 

 hind-part of the body. Mr. Abbot says that it eats the leaves of 

 the dogwood (Comus Florida), oak, and of other trees ; that it 

 makes its cocoon in September, and that the moth comes out in 

 July. 



A still more extraordinary slug-caterpillar, having a very re- 

 mote resemblance to the last, is sometimes seen here on oak-trees, 

 in the month of September. It is of a dark brown color, and is 

 covered with a short velvet-like down ; its body is almost oblong 

 square, but the sides of the rings extend horizontally in the form 

 of flattened teeth ; three of these teeth on each side, that is, one 

 on the forepart, the middle, and the hind-part of the body, are 

 much longer than the others, and are curved backwards at the end. 

 When fully grown, the caterpillar measures nearly an inch in 

 length. It does not bear confinement well, and my specimens 

 generally died without making cocoons. Dr. Melsheimer, to 

 whom I am indebted for one of the moths, informs me that the 

 caterpillar eats the leaves of the wild cherry, as well as those of 

 the white and red oak, that it makes its cocoon about the middle 

 of September, changes to a chrysalis the following April, and 

 that the moth appears in about eight weeks afterwards. The 

 name given to this insect by Sir J. E. Smith f is pitkecium, the 

 meaning of which is a shrivelled and monkey-faced old woman, 

 bestowed upon it probably on account of the shrivelled appear- 

 ance and dark color of the caterpillar. Jn its winged state, Lima- 

 codes pithecium, or the hag-moth, as it may be called, is of a 

 dusky brown color ; its fore-wings are variegated with light yel- 

 lowish brown, and with a narrow curved and wavy band, of the 

 same light color, edged externally with dark brown near the outer 

 margin, and a light brown spot near the middle ; the fringes of 

 all the wings are spotted with light brown ; the legs are covered 

 with long hairs ; the antenna;, in both sexes, are slender, almost 



* " Insects of Georgia," p. 145, pi. ?:!. 



t Abbot's " Insects of Georgia," p. 147, pi. 74. 



