LEPIDOPTERA. 337 



hair in tufts like Arctians and Liparians. They make tough 

 silken cocoons, in texture almost like stiff brown paper, into 

 which they weave the hairs of their bodies. Their moths have 

 bristle-formed antcnnse, and the thorax is not crested. Their 

 fore wings are generally light gray with dark spots, and in 

 many are marked with a character resembling the Greek letter 

 V near the inner hind angle. Of those that want this charac- 

 ter on the fore wings, the largest American species, known to 

 me, may be called Apatela Americana^ wrhich ,\va^ been mis- 

 taken* for Apatela Aceris, the maple-moth of Europe. Its 

 body and fore wings are light gray ; on the latter there is a 

 wavy, scalloped w^hite line edged externally with black near 

 the outer hind margin, and the usual round and kidney-shaped 

 spots are also edged with black ; the hind wings are dark gray 

 in the male, blackish in the female, with a faintly marked 

 black curved band and central semicircular spot; all the wings 

 are whitish and shining beneath, with a black wavy and curved 

 band and central semicircular spot on each ; the fringes are 

 white, scalloped, and spotted with black. It expands from two 

 inches and a quarter to two inches and a half, or more. This 

 kind of moth flies only at night, and makes its appearance 

 between the middle and the end of July, The caterpillar eats 

 the leaves of the various kinds of maple, and sometimes also 

 those of the elm, linden, and chestnut. It is one of the largest 

 kinds ; and, early in October, when it aiTives at maturity, 

 measures from one inch and three quarters to two inches or 

 more in length. It is of a greenish yellow color above, with 

 the head, tail, belly, and feet black ; its body is covered with 

 long and soft yellow hairs, growing immediately from the 

 skin ; on the top of the fourth ring there are two long, slender, 

 and erect tufts of black hairs, two more on the sixth ring, and 

 a single pencil on the eleventh ring.f While at rest, it re- 



* See Phalcena Aceris, Smith, in Abbot's "Insects of Georgia," p. 185, pi. 93. 



t Those naturalists, who are familiar with the appearance of the European 

 caterpillar of Apatela Aceris, will perceive the great and essential difference be- 

 tween it and that of our American Apatela, which bears about as much resem- 

 blance to the former as does that of Astasia torrefacta, of Sir J. E. Smith, an 

 insect apparently belonging to the Notodontians, and near to Clostera and Py- 



43 



