LEPIDOPTERA. 245 



being at this time in search of proper winter quarters wherein to 

 make their cocoons. They are of a dark greenish gray color, but 

 appear almost black from the black spots with which they are 

 thickly covered ; there are three longitudinal stripes of flesh white 

 on the back, and a row of kidney-shaped spots of the same color 

 on each side of the body. The warts are dark gray, and each 

 one produces a thin cluster of spreading blackish hairs. They eat 

 the leaves of plantain and of other herbaceous plants, and it is 

 stated * that they sometimes make great devastation among young 

 Indian corn in the Southern States. 



A much more abundant species in Massachusetts is that which 

 has been called the harnessed moth, Jlrctia yhalerata of my Cata- 

 logue. It makes its appearance from the end of May to the mid- 

 dle of August, and probably breeds throughout the whole sum- 

 mer. It is of a pale buff or nankin color ; the hind-wings next to 

 the body and the sides of the body are reddish ; on the fore-wings 

 are two longitudinal black stripes and four triangular black spots, 

 the latter placed near the tip ; and these stripes and spots are ar- 

 ranged so that the buff-colored spaces between them somewhat 

 resemble horse-harness ; the hind-wings have several black spots 

 near the margin ; there are two dots on the collar, three stripes 

 on the thorax, and a stripe along the top of the back, of a black 

 color ; the under-side of the body and the legs are also black. 

 The wings expand from one inch and a half, to one inch and 

 three quarters. The caterpillar is not yet known to me. This 

 moth, in many respects, resembles one called Phyllira f by 

 Drury, rarely found here, but abundant in the Southern States ; 

 the fore-wings of which are black, with one longitudinal line, two 

 transverse lines, and near the tip two zigzag lines forming a W, of 

 a buff color. 



The feelers and tongue of the foregoing moths, though short, 

 are longer than in the following species, which have these parts, 

 as well as the head, smaller and more covered with hairs. Some 

 of the latter may be said to occupy the centre or chief place 

 among the Arctians, exceeding all the rest in the breadth of their 

 wings, the thickness of their bodies, and the richness of their 



* Abbot's Insects of Georgia, p. 125, pi. 63. t More properly Fhilyra. 



