283 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



very sluggish and heavy in their motions, and seldom go far 

 from their cocoons ; the males frequently fly by day in search 

 of their mates. The caterpillars of most of the Liparians are 

 half naked, their thin hairs growing chiefly on the sides of 

 their bodies; the warts which furnish them being only six or 

 eight* in number on each ring; and they have two little soft 

 and reddish warts (one on the top of the ninth, and the other 

 on the tenth ring), which can be drawn in and out at pleasure. 

 Some of them have four or five short and thick tufts, cut ofl" 

 square at the ends, on the top of the back, two long and slender 

 pencils of hairs extending forwards, like antennae, from the first 

 ring, sometimes two more pencils on the fifth ring, and a single 

 pencil on the top of the eleventh ring. The warts which pro- 

 duce these pencils are more prominent or longer than the rest. 

 These caterpillars are called tussocks in England, from the 

 tufts on their backs. They live upon trees and shrubs, and, 

 when at rest, they bend down the head, and bring over it the 

 long plume-like pencils of the first ring. Their cocoons are 

 large, thin, and flattened, and consist of a soft kind of silk, 

 intermixed with which are a few hairs. The chrysalids are 

 covered with down or short hairs, and end at the tail with a 

 long projecting point. In Europe there are many kinds of 

 Liparians, some of them at times exceedingly injurious to 

 vegetation, their caterpillars devouring the leaves of fruit-trees, 

 and not unfrequently extending their devastations to the hedges, 

 and even to the corn and grass. f There do not appear to be 

 many kinds in the United States, and they never swarm to 

 the same extent as in Europe. 



During the months of July and August, there may be found 

 on apple-trees and rose-bushes, and sometimes on other trees 

 and shrubs, little slender caterpillars of a bright yellow color, 



* The Arctians have ten or more M-arts on each ring. 



t Those destructive kinds are the caterpillars of the brown-tailed moth (Por- 

 thesla auriflna), of the golden-tailed moth (Portkesia chnjsorrhma), of the gipsey- 

 moth {Hypogymna dispar), and of the black arches-moth {Psilura monacha). The 

 first of these abounded to such an extent in England, in the year 1782, that 

 prayers were ordered to be read in all the churches, to avert the destruction 

 which was anticipated from them. 



