174 



HARRIS TO DOUBLEDAY. 



Cambridge, Marcli 24, 1849. 



Last April I captured another species of Breplios, which is 

 the analogue of the Partlienias of Linnasus 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 [PI. 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- 

 fore. Rude as the figure is, you will 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 Psilura monaclia^ and there are 

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

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

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

 Plusia. Now look at the singular, humped 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 wiiich it covers with a 

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



