246 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



colors. Among these is the great American tiger-moth, Arciia 

 Americana^ an undescribed species, which some of the French 

 entomologists* have supposed to be the same as the great tiger, 

 Arctia Caja, of Europe. Of this fine insect I have a specimen, 

 which was presented to me by Mr. Edward Doubleday, who ob- 

 tained it, with several others, near Trenton-falls in New York. It 

 has not yet been discovered in Massachusetts, but will probably 

 be found in the western part of the State. The fore-wings of the 

 Arctia Americana expand two inches and a half or more ; they 

 are of a brown color, with several spots and broad winding lines 

 of white, dividing the brown surface into a number of large irreg- 

 ular blotches ; the hind-wings are ochre-yellow, with five or six 

 round blue-black spots, three of them larger than the rest; the 

 thorax is brown and woolly ; the collar edged with white before 

 and with crimson behind ; the outer edges of the shoulder-covers 

 are white ; the abdomen is ochre-yellow, with four black spots on 

 the middle of the back ; the thighs and fore-legs are red, and the 

 feet dark brown. This moth closely resembles the European 

 Caja.) and especially some of its varieties, from all of which, how- 

 ever, it is essentially distinguished by the white edging of the 

 collar and shoulder-covers, and the absence of black lines on the 

 sides of the body. It is highly probable that specimens may oc- 

 cur with orange-colored or red hind-wings like the Caja, but I 

 have not seen any such. The caterpillar of our species probably 

 resembles that of the Cnja^ which is dark chestnut-brown or 

 black, clothed with spreading bunches of hairs, of a foxy red 

 color on the forepart and sides of the body, and black on the 

 back : but the clusters of hairs, though thick, are not so close as 

 to conceal the breathing holes, which form a distinct row of pearly 

 white spots on each side of the body. These caterpillars eat the 

 leaves of various kinds of garden plants, without much discrimina- 

 tion, feeding together in considerable numbers on the same plant 

 when young, but scattering as they grow older. 



The largest of the American Arctias is the Scribonia, or great 

 white leopard-moth, which varies in expansion from two and a 

 half to three and a half inches, the females being invariably much 



* Godart. Lepidopt. de France, T. IV., p. 303. 



