150 



former ; that is, unless we subdivide the genus Saturnia veiy 

 much, and even in this case it could not be very remote from 

 Maia. 



Do you remember the moth which you sent me for ex- 

 amination, numbered 266 \_Perophqra Melsheimei'i], and re- 

 specting which these remarks occur in your manuscript? "266 

 I took in July at the Warm Springs. It seems allied to Dryo- 

 camija^ but distinct; it will come under no English genus." 

 Your specimen is a 9 . We have a much larger one, $ , in our 

 Society's collection ; and Dr. Melsheimer has recently sent me 

 a pair, with a cocoon. 



The moth is light reddish ash-colored, or very pale fawn, 

 finely sprinkled over with minute black dots ; a narrow dusky 

 band with an angulated inflection on the anterior margin of the 

 fore wing passes across both wings to the middle of the inner 

 edge of the hind wings ; there is also a minute blackish spot on 

 the fore wings. The antennae in the male are curved and bipcc- 

 tinated to the tip, but the pectinations are narrowed towards 

 the tips. The palpi are very small and cylindrical ; and the 

 tongue is obsolete and invisible. In the form of the body and 

 wings it closely resembles Bomhyx mori^ but tlie neuration is 

 somewhat different. 



A few days ago one of my pupils brought to me a living 

 caterpillar contained in a cocoon, as he called it, which proved 

 to be exactly like the remarkable cocoon sent by Melsheimer 

 with the moths, and this recalled to my recollection a remark 

 made by Dr. Melsheimer in one of his letters, that he had got 

 what he supposed to be an Oiketicus. Although not an Olkct- 

 icus, it is a true SacJdrayer, as the Germans would call it, for 

 it bears about with it the bacj-like cocoon whenever it moves 

 from place to place. In the margin is a sketch of the cocoon, 

 with the caterpillar stretching itself out, as is its custom when 

 looking around. [See Newman's Entomologist, p. 100.] 



The cocoon (for such it really becomes eventually) is formed 

 of two oblong oval pieces of a leaf, very firmly united at their 



