LEPIDOPTERA. 88& 



clouded with rust-rod; they have an irregular row of blackish 

 dots near the outer hind margin, and are crossed by three 

 whitish lines, of which the first nearest the shoulders is broken 

 and widely separated in the middle, the second divides into 

 two branches, one of which goes straight across the wing to 

 the inner margin, and the other passes obliquely till it meets 

 the end of the third line, with which it forms an angle or letter 

 V; across 'the middle of the hilid wings there is a narrow 

 brownish band, much more distinct beneath than above ; on the 

 top of the thorax there is an oblong chcsnut-colored spot, the 

 hairs of which rise upwards behind and form a crest. All the 

 Vv^hitish lines on the fore wings are more or less bounded exter- 

 nally with rust-red. It expands from one inch and one quarter 

 to one inch and five eighths. In Georgia this insect breeds 

 twice a year; and the caterpillars eat the leaves of the willow 

 as well as those of the poplar.* 



2. Owlet-moths. {Noctuw.) 

 Our second tribe of moths, the Nocture of Linnseus, appears 

 to have been thus named from Noctua, an owl, because they 

 fly chiefly by night, and are hence called eulen, or owl-moths 

 by the Germans. This tribe contains a very large number of 

 thick-bodied and swift-flying moths, most of which may be 

 distinguished by the following characters. The antennae are 

 long and tapering, and seldom pectinated even in the males ; 

 the tongue is long; the feelers are very distinct, and project 

 more or less beyond the face, the two lower joints being com- 

 pressed or flattened at the sides, and the last joint is slender 

 and small ; the thorax is thick, with rather prom.inent collar 

 and shoulders, and is often crested on the top ; the body tapers 

 behind ; the wings are always fastened together by bristles 

 and hooks, are generally roofed, when at rest, and each of the 

 fore wings is marked behind the middle of the front margin 

 with two spots, one of them round and small, and the other 

 larger and kidney-shaped. A few of them fly by day, the 



* Sec Phalcma anastomosis of Smith, in Abbot's "Insects of Georgia," p. 143, 

 pi. 72. 



