242 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



state, on the leaves of the mouse-ear, Myosotis arvensis and pa- 

 lustris ; and it is probable that ours may be found on plants of the 

 same kind here. 



Some of the large and richly colored Lithosians resemble, in 

 many respects, the insects in the next family, called, by the 

 French, chcloniaires, or tortoise-shell, and, by the English, tiger 

 and ermine moths. The caterpillars of most of these tiger-moths 

 are thickly covered with hairs, whence they have received the 

 name of woolly bears, and the family, including them, that of 

 ArctiaDjE, or Arctians, from the Greek word for bear. The 

 Arctians, or tiger-moths, have shorter and thicker feelers than the 

 Lithosians; their tongue is also for the most part very short, not 

 extending, when unrolled, much beyond the head ; their antennae, 

 with few exceptions, are doubly feathered on the under-side ; but 

 the feathering is rather narrow, and is hardly visible in the females ; 

 their wings are not crossed on the top of the back*, but are roofed 

 or slope downwards on each side of the body, when at rest ; the 

 thorax is thick, and the abdomen is short and plump, and gener- 

 ally ornamented with rows of black spots. Their fore-wings are 

 often variegated with dark colored spots on a light ground, or light- 

 colored veins on a dark ground; and the hind -wings are frequently 

 red, orange, or yellow, spotted with black or blue. They fly 

 only in the night. Their caterpillars are covered with coarse 

 hairs, spreading out on all sides like the bristles of a bottle-brush, 

 and growing in clusters or tufts from little warts regularly ar- 

 ranged in transverse rows on the surface of the body. They run 

 very fast, and when handled roll themselves up almost into the 

 shape of a ball. Many of them are very destructive to vegeta- 

 tion, as, for example, the salt-marsh caterpillar, the yellow bear- 

 caterpillar of our gardens, and the fall web-caterpillar. When about 

 to transform, they creep into the chinks of walls and fences, or 

 hide themselves under stones and fallen leaves, where they en- 

 close themselves in rough oval cocoons, made of hairs, plucked 

 from their own bodies, interwoven with a few silken threads. 

 The chrysalis is smooth, and not hairy, and its joints are movable. 



* To tins character there is an exception in the Lophocampa tesscllaris, the 

 wings of which are closed like those o£ Lithosia quadra. 



