ATTACUS. 225 



base there is a large fulvous spot, bordered with white and black. 

 On the middle of the superiors there is an oblong yellowish-white 

 spot, broadest at the upper extremity, bordered with black. On 

 the middle of the inferiors there is a spot of similar color, but 

 more square and emarginate below. 



The under surface is similar, but the color is brighter and the 

 ocellated spot on the superiors is brownish. Expands four inches. 



Larva green ; feet yellow. Each segment except the posterior 

 has six blue spots, mounted with black tubercles. In the second 

 and third segments the two middle tubercles are supplanted by two 

 red processes of a third of an inch in length. The last segment 

 has but five tubercles ; the central one has a yellow process. 



It feeds on Laurus sassafras, spice wood, L. benzoin, and swamp 

 buttonwood, Cephalanthus occidentalis. 



In preparing for its transformation, it selects a leaf and covers 

 the upper surface of it with a yellowish-brown silk, extending this 

 coating over the footstalk of the leaf and attaching it firmly to the 

 branch. It next draws the edges of the leaf together, thus cover- 

 ing itself with a mantle, in which it spins a strong cocoon. It 

 soon assumes the pupa form, in which state it remains suspended 

 with the leaf during the winter and is disclosed the next summer. 



United States. 



3. A. luna Fahr. Figured in Sm. Abb. pi. 48. Drury, I, pi. 4. Cram. 

 Clerck, Icon. 



Antenna brown ; head white and small. Thorax white, some- 

 times yellowish or greenish, with a reddish-brown band at the 

 anterior part, which extends the whole length of the upper edge 

 of the superior wings. 



Body of the same color with the thorax, but usually whitish. 

 Both pairs of wings are clear green. On each there is an ocellate 

 spot, of which a small part is transparent, encircled with yellow, 

 before which there is a semicircle of black and blue, and in that 

 of the primaries a purple line between the semicircle and the trans- 

 parent part. On one side of each there is also a whitish line. The 

 nervures on all' the wings are very distinct and pale brown. The 

 wings near the body are densely pilose. 



The secondaries are terminated by a spatular tail, nearly two 

 inches long ; all the wings are edged with pale yellow or ochre. 



The under side is similar to the upper, except an indistinct un- 

 15 



