292 IXSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



wings, occupying the whole space, which, in other individuals, 

 intervenes between the oblique lines. The wings expand from 

 one inch and one quarter to one inch and three quarters. The 

 great difference in the caterpillar will not permit us to refer this 

 species to the Nenstria of Europe, for which Sir J. E. Smith* 

 mistook it, or to the castrensis, which it more closely resembles 

 in its winged form. 



Most caterpillars are round, that is, cylindrical, or nearly so ; 

 but there are some belonging to this group that are very broad, 

 slightly convex above, and perfectly flat beneath. They seem 

 indeed to be much broader and more flattened than they really 

 are, by reason of the hairs on their sides, which spread out so 

 as nearly to conceal the feet, and form a kind of fringe along 

 each side of the body. These hairs grow mostly from hori- 

 zontal fleshy appendages or long warts, somev^^hat like legs, 

 hanging from the sides of every ring; those on the first ring 

 being much longer than the others, which progressively de- 

 crease in size to the last. On the fore part of the body one or 

 two velvet-like and highly colored bands may be seen when 

 the caterpillar is in motion ; and on the top of the eleventh 

 ring there is generally a long naked wart. When these singu- 

 lar caterpillars are not eating, they remain at rest, stretched out 

 on the limbs of trees, and they often so nearly resemble the 

 bark in color as to escape observation. From the lappets, or 

 leg-like appendages, hanging to their sides, they are called 

 lappet-caterpillars by English writers. 



Tv^'ice I have found, on the apple-tree, in the month of Sep- 

 tember, caterpillars of this kind, measuring, when fully grown, 

 two inches and a half in length, and above half an inch in 

 breadth. The upper side was gray, variegated with irregular 

 white spots, and sprinkled all over with fine black dots ; on 

 the forepart of the body there were two transverse velvet-like 

 bands of a rich scarlet color, one on the hind part of the second, 

 and the other on the third ring, and on each of these bands 

 were three black dots ; the under side of the body was orange- 

 colored, with a row of diamond-shaped black spots ; the hairs 



* See Abbot's " Insects of Georgia," where it is figured. 



