LEPIDOPTERA. 255 



course, till they have found suitable places of shelter and conceal- 

 ment, where they make their thin and almost transparent cocoons, 

 composed of a slight web of silk intermingled with a few hairs. 

 They remain in the cocoons in the chrysalis state through the 

 winter, and are transformed to moths in the months of Jime and 

 July. These moths are white, and without spots ; the fore- 

 thighs are tawny-yellow, and the feet blackish. Their wings ex- 

 pand from one inch and a quarter to one inch and three eighths. 

 Their antennae and feelers do not differ essentially from those of 

 the majority of the Arctians, the former in the males being 

 doubly feathered beneath, and those of the females having two rows 

 of minute teeth on the under-side. This species was first 

 described by me in the seventh volume of the " New England 

 Farmer," page 33, where I gave to it the name of Jlrctia textor, 

 the weaver, from the well-known habits of its caterpillar. Should 

 it be found expedient to remove it from the genus Arctia, 1 pro- 

 pose to call the genus, which shall include it, Hyphantria., a 

 Greek name for weaver, and place in the same genus the many- 

 spotted ermine-moth, Jlrctia puiictaiissima of Sir J. E. Smith, 

 which is found in the Southern States, and agrees with our weaver 

 in habits. From the foregoing account of the habits and trans- 

 formations of the fall web-worm, or Hyphantria textor^ it is evi- 

 dent that the only time in which we can attempt to exterminate 

 these destructive insects with any prospect of success, is when 

 they are young and just beginning to make their webs on the 

 trees. So soon, then, as the webs begin to appear on the ex- 

 tremities of the branches, they should be stripped off, with the ^e\v 

 leaves which they cover, and the caterpillars contained therein, 

 at one grasp, and should be crushed under foot. 



There are many kinds of hairy caterpillars in Massachusetts, 

 differing remarkably from those of the other Arctians, and re- 

 sembling in some respects those belonging to the next tribe, with 

 which they appear to connect the true Arctians. The first of 

 these are little party-colored tufted caterpillars, which may be 

 found in great plenty on the conmion milk-weed, Jlschpias Syriaca, 

 during the latter part of July and the whole of August. x\lthough 

 the plants on which these insects live are generally looked upon 

 as weeds, and cumberers of the soil, yet the insects themselves 



