LEPIDOPTERA. 295 



it extended to the length of two inches, and two thirds of an 

 inch in breadth, its colors brightened, and a transverse" opening 

 was disclosed on the back, two thirds of an inch from the 

 head, of a most rich velvet black color. It was slnggish and 

 motionless dviring the day, and active only at night." Mr. 

 Abbot found the caterpillar of the Velleda lappet-moth on the 

 willow-oak, and on the persimmon ; and, in his figure, it is 

 represented of a dark ashen gray color, with a velvet-like black 

 band across the upper part of the third ring.* The cocoon of 

 the specimen sent to mc by Mr. Fessenden, resembled grocers' 

 soft brownish gray paper in color and texture, with a very few 

 blackish hairs interwoven with the silk of which it was made. 

 It was an inch and a half long, and half an inch wide, bordered 

 on all sides by a loose web, which made it seem of larger 

 dimensions ; its shape was oval, convex above, and perfectly 

 flat and very thin on the under side. The moth came forth 

 from this cocoon on the fifteenth of September, or about forty 

 days after the cocoon was spun. 



The Chinese silk-worm and its moth, Bomhyx mori, the 

 Bombyx of the mulberry, should follow these insects in a 

 natural arrangement; for the former is slightly hairy when first 

 hatched from the egg, and, though naked afterwards, it has, 

 like the lappet-caterpillars, a long fleshy wart on the top of the 

 eleventh ring. The history of the silk-worm, however, does 

 not belong to the subject of this treatise. 



There are several kinds of caterpillars in the United States, 

 whose cocoons are wholly made of a very strong and durable 

 sillv, fully equal to that obtained in India from the tusseh and 

 arrindy silk worms. These insects, together with some others, 

 whose cocoons are much thinner, and consist more of gummy 

 matter than of silk, belong to a family called Saturnians 

 (Saturniad^), from Saturnia, the name of a genus included 

 in this group. The caterpillars are naked, are generally short, 

 thick, and clumsy, cylindrical, but frequently hunched on the 

 back of each ring, especially when at rest, and are furnished 

 with a few warts, which are either bristled with little points or 



* "Insects of Georgia," p. 103, pi. 52. 



