294 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO \'EGETATION. 



thick, and woolly body, and is of a white color, variegated or 

 clouded with blue-gray. On the fore wings are two broad 

 dark gray bands, intervening between three narrow wavy 

 white bands, the latter being marked by an irregular gray line ; 

 the veins are white, prominent, and very distinct; the hind 

 wings are gray, with a white hind border, on which are two 

 interrupted gray lines, and across the middle there is a broad, 

 faint, whitish band ; on the top of the thorax is an oblong 

 blackish spot, widening behind, and consisting of long black 

 and pearl-colored erect scales, shaped somewhat like the 

 handle of a spoon. There is a great disparity in the size of 

 the sexes, the males measuring only from one inch and a half 

 to one inch and three quarters across the wings, while the 

 females expand from two and a quarter to two inches and 

 three quarters or more. The caterpillar of this fine moth I 

 have never seen alive ; but one was sent to me, in the autumn 

 of 1828, by the late T. G. Fessenden, Esq., who received it 

 from Newburyport, from a correspondent, by whom it was 

 found on the fifth of August, sticking so fast to the limb of an 

 apple-tree, that at first it was mistaken for a cankered spot on 

 the bark.* It was said to have measured two inches and a 

 half in length, but when it came into my hands it had spun 

 itself up in its cocoon. A caterpillar of the same kind, found 

 also on an apple-tree, has been described by Miss Dix in Pro- 

 fessor Silliman's "Journal of Science."! This observing lady 

 states, that " when at rest the resemblance of its upper surface 

 was so exact with the young bark of the branch on which it 

 was fixed, that its presence might have escaped the most 

 accurate investigation ; and this deception was the more com- 

 plete from the unusual shape of the caterpillar, which might 

 be likened to the external third of a cylinder. The sides of 

 the body were cloaked and fringed with hairs. It was of a 

 pale sea-green color above, marked with ash, blended into 

 white ; and beneath of a brilliant orange, spotted with vivid 

 black. When in motion its whole appearance was changed, 



* See "Now England Farmer," Vol. VII., p. 33. 

 t Vol. XIX., pp. 62 and 63. 



