310 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



ing themselves three or four inches deep, and turn to chrysalids 

 without making cocoons. The chrysalis is dark brown, and 

 rough with elevated points. The moths begin to come out of 

 the ground as soon as the twenty-fifth of June, and others con- 

 tinue to appear till the twentieth of July. Though of small size, 

 they are very beautiful, and far surpass all others of the family in 

 delicacy of coloring and design. The name of this moth is Eu- 

 dryas grata*, the first word signifying beautiful wood nymph, and 

 the second agreeable or pleasing. The antennae are rather long, 

 almost thread-like, tapering to the end, and not feathered in 

 either sex. The fore-wings are pure white, with a broad stripe 

 along the front edge, extending from the shoulder a little beyond 

 the middle of the edge, and a broad band around the outer hind 

 margin, of a deep purple-brown color ; the band is edged internal- 

 ly with olive-green, and marked towards the edge with a slender 

 wavy white line ; near the middle of the wing, and touching the 

 brown stripe, are two brown spots, one of them round and the 

 other kidney-shaped ; and on the middle of the inner margin 

 there is a large triangular olive-colored spot ; the under-side of 

 the same wings is yellow, and near the middle there are a round 

 and a kidney-shaped black spot. The hind-wings are yellow above 

 and beneath ; on the upper side with a broad purple-brown hind 

 border on which there is a wavy white line, and on the under-side 

 with only a central black dot. The he;.d is black. Along the 

 middle of the thorax there is a broad crest-like stripe of black and 

 pearl-colored glittering scales. The shoulder-covers are white. 

 The upper side of the abdomen is yellow, with a row of black 

 spots on the top, and another on each side ; the under-side i f the 

 body, and the large muff-like tufts on the fore-legs, are white ; and 

 the other legs are black. This moth rests with its wings closed 

 like a steep roof over its back, and its fore-legs stretched for- 

 wards, like a Cerura. It expands from one inch and a half to 

 one inch and three quarters. 



Eudryas unio, of Hiibner, the pearl Eudryas, as its name im- 

 plies, is a somewhat smaller moth, closely resembling the pre- 

 ceding, from which it differs in having the stripe and band on its 



' This insect is the Bombijx grata of Fabricius. 



