LEPIDOPTERA. 269 



closely resembles the castrensis^ and still more the Neustria of 

 Europe, from both of which, however, it is easily distinguished 

 by the oblique lines on the fore-wings, which are not wavy as in 

 the foreign species. Moreover, the caterpillar is very different 

 from both of the European lackeys ; and it does no seem probable 

 that either of them, if introduced into this country, could have so 

 wholly lost their original characters. Our insect belongs to the 

 same genus, or kind, now called Clisiocampa, or tent-caterpillar, 

 from its habits ; and I propose to distinguish it furthermore from 

 its near allies by the name of Americana^ the American tent-cater- 

 pillar or lackey. The moths appear in great numbers in July, 

 flying about and often entering houses by night. At this time 

 they lay their eggs, selecting the wild cherry, in preference to all 

 other trees, for this purpose, and, next to these, apple-trees, the 

 extensive introduction and great increase of which, in this coun- 

 try, afford an abundant and tempting supply of food to the cater- 

 pillars in the place of the native cherry-trees that formerly, it 

 would seem, sufficed for their nourishment. These insects, be- 

 cause they are the most common and most abundant in all parts of 

 our country, and have obtained such notoriety that in common 

 language they are almost exclusively known among us by the name 

 of the caterpillars^ are the worst enemies of the orchard. Where 

 proper attention has not been paid to the destruction of them, they 

 prevail to such an extent as almost entirely to strip the apple and 

 cherry trees of their foliage, by their attacks continued during the 

 seven weeks of their life in the caterpillar form. The trees, in 

 those orchards and gardens where they have been suffered to 

 breed for a succession of years, become prematurely old, in con- 

 sequence of the efforts they are obliged to make to repair, at an 

 unseasonable time, the loss of their foliage, and are rendered un- 

 fruitful, and consequently unprofitable. But this is not all ; these 

 pernicious insects spread in every direction, from the trees of the 

 careless and indolent, to those of«their more careful and indus- 

 trious neighbours, whose labors are thereby greatly increased. 



its different forms, in Mr. Abbot's " Natural History of the Insects of Georgia," 

 where it is named castrensis, by Sir J. E. Smith, the editor of tlie work. 



