LEPIDOPTERA. 327 



always raised when the insect is at rest, but it generally uses 

 these legs in walking; its head is large, and of a brown color; 

 the sides of the second and third rings are green; the rest of 

 the body is brown, variegated with white on the back, and on 

 it there are a very few short hairs, hardly visible to the naked 

 eye. When fnlly grown, it measures an inch or more in length. 

 Though mostly solitary in their habits, sometimes three or four 

 of these caterpillars are found near together, and eating the 

 leaves of the same twig. Towards the end of September they 

 descend from the trees, and make their cocoons, which are thin 

 and almost transparent, resembling parchment in texture, and 

 are covered generally with bits of leaves on the outside. The 

 caterpillars remain in their cocoons a long time before changing 

 to chrysalids, and the moth does not come out till the follow- 

 ing summer. There are probably two broods in the course of 

 one season, for I have taken the moths early in August. In 

 Georgia the caterpillar made its cocoon on the thirtieth of 

 May, and was transformed to a moth fourteen days afterwards. 

 This moth is the Notodonta unicornis^ or unicorn moth, so called 

 from the horn on the back of the caterpillar. The fore wings 

 are light brown, variegated with patches of greenish white and 

 with wavy dark brown lines, two of which enclose a small 

 whitish space near the shoulders; there is a short blackish 

 mark near the middle ; the tip and the outer hind margin are 

 whitish, tinged with red in the males; and near the outer hind 

 angle there are one small white and two black dashes; the 

 hind wings of the male are dirty white, with a dusky spot on 

 the inner hind angle; those of the female are sometimes en- 

 tirely dusky; the body is brownish, and there are two narrow 

 black bands across the fore part of the thorax. The wings 

 expand from one inch and a quarter to one inch and a half, or 

 nearly. 



Our fruit-trees seem to be peculiarly subject to the ravages 

 of insects, probably because the native trees of the forest, 

 which originally yielded the insects an abundance of food, 

 have been destroyed to a great extent, and their places sup- 

 plied only partially by orchards, gardens, and nurseries. Nu- 

 merous as are the kinds of caterpillars now foiind on cultivated 



