174 



HARRIS TO DOUBLEDAY. 



Cambridge, Marcli 24, 1849. 



Last April I captured another species of JBrepJios, which is 

 the analogue of the Partlienias of Linnaeus and of the French 

 and German Entomologists, and equal to Notlia of the English 

 collectors. The antennae are not pectinated in the male. It is 

 more highly colored than English specimens of the genus, and 

 rather smaller also. I name the species Hamadryas [PL i, 

 fig 4]. 



Before beginning this letter I sketched some insects on the 



top of the opposite page, and now ask your attention to them. 



I am not sure (not having kept copies of all my letters) whether 



I may not have sent you a sketch of my 716 be- 



\^^^ <5^ yJj ^oYQ, Eude as the figv^re is, you w^ill know the 



-.3^ insect, if you have ever seen it in nature. The 



Fig. 24. fore wings are white, with black markings, 



somewhat like those of your Psihira monaclia, and there are 



three rich, brown spots on each fore wing. The antennjB are 



simple in both sexes. The thorax is not crested. The abdomen 



has three or four elevated dorsal tufts, as in some species of 



JPlusia. Now look at the singular, hvimped larva by the side 



of it, and you will see from 

 what this beautiful moth 

 comes. Head blackish ; body 

 black and white, as in the 

 sketch, and highly polished. 

 It is found in August and 

 '^^' ^' September on the Prinos ver- 



ticellata, and also on the Lilac, the leaves of both of which 

 it eats. When the time for pupation arrives, the larva, 

 invariably I believe, gnaws a cylindrical burrow in a limb or 

 twig, selecting in preference one which is dead and dry, and 

 retires into this cavity, the mouth of which it covers with a 

 web of silk. Not unfrequently the insect remains in its retreat 



