BOMBYCID^. 287 



" fall web worm," is slender, greenish yellow, dotted with black, 

 with thin, silken hairs. It spins a thin and almost transparent 

 cocoon, or almost none at all. H. cunea Drnry is white, spot- 

 ted with black dots. Mr. Saunders informs me that the larva 

 "will feed on Chenopodium album. The head is small, black, 

 shining, bilobate. The body is black, with a slight shade of 

 brown, and sprinkled with very small, whitish dots. Each seg- 

 ment has a transverse row of shining black tubercles, each 

 giving rise to a tuft of hairs of the same color ; on each side 

 of the body is a double row of orange-colored spots from the 

 sixth to the twelfth segment inclusive." 



The "3^ellow bear" is the caterpillar of Spilosoma Virginica 

 Fabr. The moth is white, with a black cliscal dot on the 

 fore wings and tAvo black dots on the hind wings, one on the 

 middle and another near the inner angle. 



Halesidota has a more slender body, with longer antennfe and 

 palpi, and longer wings than Arctia, being thin and yellowish, 

 crossed by light brownish streaks. The larva is very short 

 and thick, usually white, with dark pencils and tufts of hairs, 

 arising from twelve black tubercles on each ring, 

 placed as seen in the cut (Fig. 217). iJ. tessel- 

 laris Smith, the "checkered tussock moth," is 

 ochre-yellow, with its partially transparent fore 

 wings crossed by five rows of dusky spots. IF. 

 carifCB Harris is light ochreous, with three rows ^'^- ^^' 

 of white semitransparent spots parallel to the very oblique 

 outer margin. "The chrysalis, according to Harris, is short, 

 thick, and rather blunt, but not rounded at the end and 

 not down}'." Mr. Saunders writes me, that the larva of H, 

 maculata Harris "feeds on the oak. It is 1.30 inches in 

 length ; the body is black, thickly covered with tufts of bright 

 yellow and black hairs. From the fourth to the eleventh seg- 

 ments inclusive is a dorsal row of black tufts, the largest of 

 which is on the fourth segment." The moth appears early in 

 June ; it is light ochre-yellow, with large, irregular, light, 

 transverse, brown spots on the fore wings. 



These tufted larvae lead to the tussock caterpillars, which, as 

 in Orgyia, have long pencils of hair projecting over the head 

 and tail. The pretty larvae of this genus are variously tufted 



