307 



curved at the point; and the discoidal cell of the .hind wings is said to be 

 open. As for as the transformations of these insects have been observed 

 and described, it appeare that their caterpiUars are sparingly covered with 

 hairs, and envelop themselves in silken cocoons; those of the New Hol- 

 land genus, Agarista, are fastened to the stems of the plants on which the 

 caterpillars live, and those of the North American species, now constituting 

 the genus Alypia, are made uj^on, or just beneath the surfiice of the ground. 

 In Eudryas the antennae are not fusiform, and not curved at the end; the 

 discoidal cell of the hind wings is closed by a nervure or vein; the cater- 

 pillar is not at all hairy, and buries itself in the ground without making 

 any kind of cocoon whatever. It must nevertheless be confessed that there 

 is a striking resemblance in the form and coloring of the caterpillars of 

 Af/arista glycince, Ahjpia octomaculaia and Eudryas gmta; and, moreover, 

 the last two live upon the grape vine, and their postures are exactly alike. 

 Taking into consideration those characters in which the caterpillars agree, 

 we must admit that Dr. Boisduval had some reason for placing Eudryas 

 near to Agarisla and ^Egocera, as he has done on the fourteenth plate in 

 the first volume of his Species general des Lepidopteres. Some of the Eng- 

 lish entomologists, whom I have consulted, think that Eudryas ought to be 

 put among the Noctuce near to Acontia and Eupliasia, in which oj^inion I 

 cannot agree with them; for the caterpillar of E. grata has all its legs 

 perfect, and does not arch the body in creeping. On account of its 

 hairless body, the humped tail, like that of Notodonta dictcea, the want of 

 a cocoon, in which it agrees with Pyga;ra, and its simple and tapering an- 

 tennae, which, Avith other characters, seem to me to exclude it from the 

 Agaristiadce, I still leave it, although with some hesitation, among the 

 Notodontladce, where I had first placed it. 



Astasia torrefaeta? Sm.-Abb. 



July 23, 1828. Found on the burdock; eats leaves of willow well. Body 

 cylindrical, above pale yellow, beneath greenish black. Segments very dis- 

 tinct, almost annulose, sides and incisures greenish yellow, head of same 

 color, tips of mandibles black; no tubercles, but the body is covei-ed with 

 lanuginous hairs, flexuous backwards, of a pale sulphur color; second seg- 

 ment above, with a long plume of ferruginous hairs, directed a httle forwards; 

 the same segment has a conspicuous, transverse, oval spot each side; third 

 segment with a black spot each side; fourth to ninth inclusive with an inter- 

 rupted black line or on each a linear, dorsal, black spot furnishing a short 

 fascicle of a few erect black hairs; legs blackish; prolegs thick at base, pyri- 

 form or tapering at tip, and furnished with a semicircular, unguiferous, red 

 plate. The hairs are all simple or unbearded. 



July 24th, A. M. Cast its skin. The wool which now covers it is of a 



