LEPIDOPTERA. 225 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



Caterpillars. — Butterflies. Skippers. — Haavk-Moths. ^gerians or 

 Boring-Caterpillars. Glaucopidians. — Moths. — Spinners. Lithosi- 

 ans. — Tiger-Moths. Ermine-Moths. Tussock-Moths. — Lackey-Moths. 

 Lappet-Moths. — Saturnians. — Ceratocampians. — Carpenter-Moths. — 



PSYCHIANS. NoTODONTIANS. OwL-MOTHS. CuT-WoRMS. — GEOMETERS, OR 



Span-Worms, and Canker -Worms. — Delta-Moths. — Leap-Rollers. Bud- 

 Moths. Fruit-Moths. — Bee-Moths. Corn-Moths. Clothes-Moths. — 

 Feather-winged Moths. 



There are perhaps no insects which are so commonly and so 

 universally destructive as caterpillars ; they are inferior only to 

 locusts in voracity, and equal or exceed them in their powers 

 of increase, and in general are far more widely spread over 

 vegetation. Caterpillars are the young of butterflies and of 

 moths ; and of these, five hundred species, which are natives 

 of Massachusetts, are already known to me, and probably there 

 are at least as many more kinds to be discovered within the 

 limits of this Commonwealth. As each female usually lays 

 from two hundred to five hundred eggs, one thousand different 

 kinds of butterflies and moths will produce, on an average, 

 three hundred thousand caterpillars; if one half of this num- 

 ber, when arrived at maturity, are females, they will give forty- 

 five millions of caterpillars in the second, and six thousand 

 seven hundred and fifty millions in the third generation. 

 These data suffice to show that the actual number of these 

 insects, existing at any one time, must be far beyond the 

 limits of calculation. The greater part of caterpillars subsist 

 on vegetable food, and especially on the leaves of plants; hence 

 their injuries to vegetation are immense, and are too often 

 forced upon our notice. Some devour the solid wood of trees, 

 some live only in the pith of plants, and some confine them- 

 selves to grains and seeds. Certain species attack our woollens 

 and furs, thereby doing us much injury; even leather, meat, 

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