LEPIDOPTERA. 289 



Neustria of Europe, from both of which, however, it is easily 

 distinguished by the oblique lines on the fore wings, which are 

 not wavy as in the foreign species. Moreover, the caterpillar 

 is very difterent from both of the European lackeys ; and it 

 does not seem probable that either of them, if introduced into 

 this country, could have so wholly lost their original characters. 

 Our insect belongs to the same genus, or kind, now called 

 Clisiocampa^ or tent-caterpillar, from its habits ; and I propose 

 to distinguish it furthermore from its near allies by the name 

 of Americana, the American tent-caterpillar or lackey. The 

 moths appear in great numbers in July, flying about and often 

 entering houses by night. At this time they lay their eggs, 

 selecting the wild cherry, in preference to all other trees, for 

 this purpose, and, next to these, apple-trees, the extensive in- 

 troduction and great increase of which, in this country, afford 

 an abundant and tempting supply of food to the caterpillars, 

 in the place of the native cherry-trees that formerly, it would 

 seem, suiiiced for their nourishment. These insects, because 

 they are the most common and most abundant in all parts of 

 our country, and have obtained such notoriety that in common 

 language they are almost exclusively known among us by the 

 name of the caterpillars, are the worst enemies of the orchard. 

 Where proper attention has not been paid to the destruction 

 of them, they prevail to such an extent as almost entirely to 

 strip the apple and cherry trees of their foliage, by their attacks 

 continued during the seven weeks of their life in the caterpillar 

 form. The trees, in those orchards and gardens where they 

 have been suffered to breed for a succession of years, become 

 prematurely old, in consequence of the efforts they are obliged 

 to make to repair, at an unseasonable time, the loss of their 

 foliage, and are rendered unfruitful, and consequently unprofit- 

 able. But this is not all ; these pernicious insects spread in 

 every direction, from the trees of the careless and indolent, to 

 those of their more careful and industrious neighbors, whose 



It is figured, in its different forms, in Mr. Abbot's " Natural History of the In- 

 sects of Georgia," where it is named casirensis, by Sir J. E. Smith, the editor of 

 the work. 



37 



