LEPIDOPTERA. 257 



The Glaucopidians,* so named from the glaucous or bluish 

 green color of some of the specieg, are distinguished from the 

 other Sphinges by their antennce, which, in the males at least, 

 and sometimes in both sexes, are feathered, or furnished on 

 each side with little slender branches, parallel to each other 

 like the teeth of a comb. In scientific works such antenna) 

 are called pectinated, from pecten, the Latin for comb. The 

 caterpillars of the Glaucopidians have sixteen feet, are slender, 

 and cylindrical, with a few hairs scattered generally over the 

 surface of the body, or arranged in little tufts arising from 

 minute warts, and are without a horn on the hinder extremity. 

 They devour the leaves of plants, and make for themselves 

 cocoons of coarse silk, in which they undergo their transfor- 

 mations. The chrysalids are oblong oval, rounded at one end, 

 tapering at the other, and are not provided with transverse 

 rows of teeth on the surface of the body. In the caterpillar 

 and winged states, in the nature of their transformations, and 

 in their habits, these insects approach very closely to the Pha- 

 Iffiuffi, or moths, forming the third division of Lepidopterous 

 insects, among which they are arranged by some naturalists. 

 There are not many of them in Massachusetts, and only one 

 species requires to be noticed here.f This is the Procris 

 Americana^ a small moth of a blue-black color, with a saffron- 

 colored collar, and a notched tuft on the extremity of the body. 

 The wings, which are very narrow, expand nearly one inch. 

 This little insect is the American representative of the Procris 

 vitis or ampelojjhaga of Europe, which, in the caterpillar state, 

 sometimes proves very injurious to the grape-vine. The habits 

 of our species are exactly the same ; but have been overlooked, 

 or very rarely observed in this vicinity. The caterpillars are 

 aresarious, that is, considerable numbers of them live and feed 

 together, collected side by side on the same leaf, and only dis- 

 perse when they are about to make their cocoons. They are 

 of a yellow color, with a transverse row of black velvety tufts 

 on each ring, and a few conspicuous hairs on each extremity 



* See additional obswTations on page 24G. 



tFor the other species sec '< Silliman's Journal," Yol. XXXVI., pp. 316 to 319. 



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