LEPIDOPTERA. 237 



ampelophaga of Europe, which, in the caterpillar state, some- 

 times proves very injurious to the grape-vine. The habits of our 

 species are exactly the same ; but it has not yet become so com- 

 mon as to have attracted general observation. The caterpillars 

 are gregarious, that is, considerable numbers of them live and feed 

 together, collected side by side on the same leaf, and only dis- 

 perse when they are about to make their cocoons. Professor 

 Hentz, to whom I am indebted for some notes respecting these 

 insects, informs me that the caterpillars occasionally appear in 

 considerable numbers on the grape-vines in North Carolina ; and 

 states that they are green, with black bands, and slightly hairy. 

 Their cocoons are oblong oval, very tough, and are fastened, by 

 one side, to the leaves or stems^of the plant on which the insects 

 live. I have never seen the caterpillars myself, but have occa- 

 sionally captured the winged insects, which make their appearance 

 here towards the end of July. 



III. MOTHS. [PhalcBTKB.)* 



The third great section of the Lepidoptera, which Linnaeus 

 named Phalcena, includes a vast number of insects, sometimes 

 called millers, or night-butterflies, but more frequently moths. 

 The latter term, thus applied, comprehends not only those do- 

 mestic moths, which in the young or caterpillar state, devour 

 cloth, but all the other insects, belonging to the order Lepidop- 

 tera, which cannot be arranged among the butterflies and hawk- 

 moths. 



These insects vary greatly in size, color, and structure. Some 

 of them, particularly those with gilded wings, are very minute ; 

 while the Atlas-moth of China [Jittacus Atlas) ^ when its wings 

 are ej^panded, covers a space measuring nearly nine inches by five 

 and a half ; and the owl-moth (Erebus Strix) has wings, which 

 though not so broad, expand eleven inches. Some female moths 

 are destitute of wings, or have but very small ones, wholly unfitted 

 for flight ; and there are species whose wings are longitudinally 

 cleft into several narrow rays, resembhng feathers. The stalk of 



* See page 210. 



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