306 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



met with it alive, but have seen several specimens which were 

 taken in this State. The time of its appearance here is not 

 known to me with certainty; but, if I am rightly informed, it 

 has been found in July and the beginning of August, flying 

 by day on the borders of oak woods, or resting on the shrub 

 oaks which cover the sides of some of our hisfh hills. Of the 

 caterpillar I have seen only one specimen, which was found, 

 fully grown, on an oak, towards the end of September; it was 

 destroyed, however, before I had an opportunity of making a 

 description of it. Mr. Abbot* has figured two of the cater- 

 pillars, which differ from each other in color and markings. 

 They are nearly three inches long; the head and all the feet 

 are red ; and on each of the rings there are six long branched 

 prickles. One of these caterpillars is represented of a dusky 

 brown color mingled with yellow, with yellow warts from which 

 the prickles arise. The other is yellow, with red warts, and 

 two black stripes along the back. Mr. Abbot states that these 

 caterpillars, while small, feed together in company, but disperse 

 as they grow large; they eat the leaves of various kinds of 

 oaks ; sting very sharply when handled ; and that they go into 

 the ground to transform; but he does not inform us whether 

 they make cocoons. Probably their cocoons are like those of 

 the lo moth, composed of a gummy membranaceous sub- 

 stance, covered either with leaves or with grains of earth. 



As far as I can ascertain, these six moths are the only Satur- 

 nians which have been discovered east of the Mississippi, and 

 they are commonly met with throughout the United States. 

 The last of them, together with some foreign species, such as 

 the Tau moth of Europe, seem naturally to conduct to the 

 next family, which I call Ceratocampians (Ceratocampad.e), 

 after the name of the chief genus contained in it. This name, 

 moreover, signifying horned caterpillar, serves to point out the 

 principal peculiarity of the caterpillars in this group; they 

 being armed with thorny points, of which those on the second 

 ring, and sometimes also those on the third, are long, curved, 

 and resemble horns. These caterpillars eat the leaves of forest- 



* "Insects of Georgia," p. 99, pi. 50. 



