LEPIDOPTERA. 297 



Bombyccs called Attaais by LiniifEUs. They are distingnishcd 

 from the rest of the Saturnians by having wide and flat anten- 

 njE, like short oval feathers, in both sexes, and by the fleshy 

 warts on the backs of their caterpillars, which are richly colored, 

 and tipped with minute bristles. Preeminent above all our 

 moths, in queenly beauty, is the Attaais Luna, or Luna-moth, 

 its specific name being the same as that given by the Romans 

 to the moon, poetically' styled "fair empress of the night." 

 The wings of this fine insect are of a delicate light green color, 

 and the hinder angle of the posterior wings is prolonged, so as 

 to form a tail to each, of an inch and a half or more in length; 

 there is a broad purple-brown stripe along the front edge of the 

 fore wings, extending also across the thorax, and sending back- 

 wards a little branch to an eye-like spot near the middle of the 

 wing; these eye-spots, of which there is one on each of the 

 wings, are transparent in the centre, and are encircled by rings 

 of white, red, yellow, and black; the hinder borders of the 

 wings are more or less edged or scalloped with purple-brown ; 

 the body is covered with a white land of wool ; the antenna 

 are ochre-yellow; and the legs are purple-brown. The wings 

 expand from four inches and three quarters to tive inches and 

 a half. The caterpillar of this moth lives on the walnut and 

 hickory, on which it may be found, fully grown, towards the 

 end of July and during the month of August. It is of a pale 

 and very clear bluish green color ; there is a yellow stripe on 

 each side of the body, and the back is crossed, between the 

 rings, by transverse lines of the same yellow color ; on each of 

 the rings are about six minute pearl-colored warts, tinged with 

 purple or rose-red, and furnishing a few little hairs; and at the 

 extremity of the body are three brown spots, edged above with 

 yellow. When this insect is at rest it is nearly as thick as a 

 man's thumb, its rings are hunched, and its body is shortened, 

 not measuring, even when fully grown, above two inches in 

 length ; but, in motion, it extends to the length of three inches 

 or more. When about to make its cocoon, it draws together, 

 with silken threads, two or three leaves of the tree, and within 

 the hollow thus formed spins an oval and very close and strong 

 cocoon, about one inch and three quarters long, and immedi- 

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