LEPIDOPTERA. 265 



stripes. They feed on various herbaceous and shrub])y plants, 

 and conceal themselves in the daytime under leaves or stones. 



Most of the other tiger and ermine moths of Massachusetts 

 may be arranged under the general name of Arctia. The first of 

 them would probably be placed by Mr. Kirby in Callimorpha, 

 from wiiich, however, they differ in their shorter and more robust 

 antenna?, always very distinctly feathered, at least in the males. 

 They are distinguished from the rest by having two black spots 

 on the collar, and three short black stripes on the thorax. The 

 largest and most rare of these moths is the Arctia virg-o, or 

 virgin tiger-moth. On account of the peculiarly strong and 

 disagreeable odor which it gives out, it might, with greater 

 propriety, have been named the stinking tiger-moth. It is a 

 very beautiful insect. Its fore wings expand from two inches 

 to two and a half, are flesh-red, fading to reddish buff", and 

 covered with many stripes and lance-shaped spots of black; 

 the hind wings are vermilion-red, with seven or eight large 

 black blotches ; the under side of the body is black, the upper 

 side of the abdomen vermilion-red, with a row of black spots 

 close together along the top of the back. The caterpillar is 

 brown, and pretty thickly covered with tufts of brown hairs. 

 The moth appears here in the latter part of July and August. 



The Arg-e tiger-moth resembles the preceding, but is smaller, 

 and not so highly colored, and the black markings on the fore 

 wings are smaller, and separated from each other by wider 

 spaces. Its general tint is a light flesh-color, fading to nankin ; 

 the fore wings are marked with streaks and small triangular 

 spots of black; the hind wings are generally deeper colored 

 than the fore wings, and have from five to seven or eight black 

 spots of diflferent sizes upon them ; there are two black spots 

 on the collar, and three on the thorax, as in the preceding 

 species; the abdomen is of the color of the hind wings, with a 

 longitudinal row of black dots on the top, another on each side, 

 and two rows, of larger size, beneath. The wings expand from 

 one inch and three quarters to two inches. I have taken this 

 moth from the twentieth of May till the middle of July. The 

 caterpillar appears here sometimes in large swarms, in the 

 month of October, having then become fully grown, measuring 

 34 



