LEPIDOPTERA. 321 



each of the rings of the back, there is a transverse row of little 

 pointed teeth which shut into corresponding notches in the 

 ring immediately behind them. These teeth are evidently 

 designed to enable the chrysalis to move towards the mouth 

 of its case, and to hold with, when it is engaged in forcing off 

 the lid in order to allow of the escape of the moth. I do not 

 know at what time the moths come out in Massachusetts; 

 they have been taken in July, in Virginia. Both sexes leave 

 their cocoons when arrived at maturity, and both are provided 

 with wings. Their feelers are of moderate size, cylindrical, 

 blunt-pointed, and thickly covered with scales. The tongue 

 is not visible. Their antennte are curved, and are recurved or 

 bent upwards at the point; the stalk is feathered, in a double 

 row, on the under side, very widely in the males, for more than 

 half its length, and beyond the middle the feathery fringe is 

 suddenly narrowed, and tapers thence to the tip; in the females 

 the antennae are also doubly feathered, but the fringe is nar- 

 rower throughout than in the other sex. The body and the 

 wings almost exactly resemble those of the foreign silk-worm 

 moth in shape; but the fore wings are rather more pointed and 

 hooked at the tip. There are no bristles and hooks to hold 

 together the wings, which, when at rest, cover the sides like a 

 sloping roof, and the front edge of the hind wings does not 

 project beyond that of the fore wings. These moths are of a 

 reddish gray color, finely sprinkled all over with minute black 

 dots; the posterior margin of the hind wings above, and the 

 under side of the fore wings, especially behind the tip, are 

 tinged with tawny red; there is a small black dot near the 

 middle of the fore wings ; and both the fore and hind wings 

 are crossed by a narrow blackish band, beginning with an angle 

 on the front edge of the former, and passing obliquely back- 

 wards to the inner edge of the hind wings. They expand 

 from one inch and three eighths to two inches, or a little more. 

 The last family of the Bombyces, remaining to be noticed, 

 may be called Notodontians (Notodontace). Many of the 

 caterpillars belonging to it have hunched backs, or tooth-like 

 prominences on the back ; and hence the origin of the name 

 of this family, which comes from a word signifying toothed 

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