248 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



ter, and come forth in the winged state in the month of June 

 following, at which time the moths may often be found on the 

 trunks of trees, or on fences in the vicinity. In this state their 

 wings expand nearly five inches, are qf a light brown color, 

 variegated with dark brown and wiiite, and the hinder part of 

 the body is marked with five longitudinal dark brown lines. A 

 young friend of mine, in Boston, once captured on the tranks 

 of the trees a large number of these moths during a morning's 

 walk in the mall, although obliged to be on the alert, to escape 

 from the guardians of the common, whose duty it was to 

 prevent the grass from being trodden down. Nearly all of 

 these specimens were females, ready to deposit their eggs, with 

 which their large bodies were completely filled. On being 

 taken, they made scarcely any efforts to escape, and were safely 

 carried away. It would not be difficult, by such means, very 

 considerably to reduce the number of these destructive insects; 

 in addition to which it might be expedient, during the proper 

 season, for our city authorities to employ persons to gather 

 and kill every morning the caterpillars which may be found in 

 those public walks where they abound. 



From the genus Sphinx I have separated another group to 

 which I have given the name of Philampelus* from the circum- 

 stance that the larva? or caterpillars live upon the grape-vine. 

 When young they have a long and slender tail recurved over 

 the back like that of a dog; but this, after one or two changes 

 of the skin, disappears, and nothing remains of it but a smooth, 

 eye-like, raised spot on the top of the last segment of the body. 

 Some of these caterpillars are pale green and others are brown, 

 and the sides of their body are ornamented by six cream-colored 

 spots, of a broad oval shape, in the species which produces the 

 Satellitia of Linneeus, narrow oval and scalloped, in that which 

 is transformed to the species called Achemon by Drary. They 

 have the power of withdrawing the head and the first three 

 segments of the body within the fourth segment, which gives 

 them a short and blunt appearance when at rest. As they 

 attain to the length of three inches or more, and are thick in 



* The literal signification of this -word is I love the vine. 



