280 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



brown spots on the fore wings, arranged almost in transverse 

 bands. It expands nearly one inch and three quarters. The 

 caterpillar, as far as I can judge from a shrivelled specimen, 

 was covered with whitish tufts forming a crest on the back, 

 in which were situated eight black tufts; there was a black 

 pencil on each side of the fourth and of the tenth ring, and a 

 quantity of long white hairs overhanging the head and the 

 hinder extremity; the head was black; but the color of the 

 body cannot be ascertained. 



A fourth kind of Lophocampa, or crested caterpillar, remains 

 to be described. It is very common, throughout the United 

 States, on the button-wood or sycamore, upon which it may 

 be seen in great numbers in July and August. The tufts on 

 these caterpillars are light yellow or straw-colored, the crest 

 being very little darker; on the second and third rings are two 

 orange-colored pencils, which are stretched over the head when 

 the insect is at rest, and before these are several long tufts of 

 white hairs ; on each side of the third ring is a white pencil, 

 and there are two pencils, of the same color, directed back- 

 wards, on the eleventh ring. The body is yellowish white, 

 with dusky warts, and the head is brownish yellow. These 

 caterpillars leave the trees towards the end of August, and 

 conceal themselves in crevices of fences, and under stones, 

 and make their cocoons, which resemble those of the hickory 

 tussock; and from the middle of June to the end of July the 

 moths come forth. These moths are faintly tinged with ochre- 

 yellow; their long, narrow, delicate, and semitransparent wings 

 lie almost flatly on the top of the back; the upper pair are 

 checkered with dusky spots, arranged so as to form five irregu- 

 lar transverse bands ; the hind edge of the collar, and the inner 

 edges of the shoulder-covers are greenish blue, and between 

 the latter are two short and narrow deep yellow stripes; the 

 upper side of the abdomen and of the legs are deep ochre- 

 yellow. The wings expand about two inches. The name of 

 this beautiful and delicate moth is Lophocampa tesscllaris, the 

 checkered tussock-moth. It is figured and described in Smith 

 and Abbot's " Insects of Georgia," where, however, the cater- 

 pillar is not correctly represented. Mr. Abbot's figure of the 



