LEPIDOPTERA. 299 



resembles also the same sex of a Dryocampa., particularly in its 

 antennce, which are feathered on both sides on the lower part of 

 the stalk, and are bare at the other end. The female has neither 

 wings, antennae, nor legs, and is said to remain always within its 

 cocoon. Some years ago, a case or cocoon of an Oiketicus, 

 which was found on Long Island, was presented to mel It was 

 smaller than tlie West Indian specimens, measuring only an inch 

 and a half without its loop, and was covered with a few little 

 sticks longitudinally arranged. It contained a female chrysalis, 

 , with the remains of the caterpillar. 



We have, in Massachusetts, another sack-bearer, which does 

 not appear to have been described, and differs so much both from 

 Fsyche and OiJceticus, when arrived at maturity, as to induce me 

 to give it another generical name. I therefore call it Perophora 

 Melsheimerii*, Melsheimer's sack-bearer. A case of this insect, 

 containing a living caterpillar, was brought to me towards the end 

 of September, by a student of Harvard University, Mr. H. O. 

 White, who found it on an oak-tree in Cambridge. This case 

 was nearly an inch and a half long, and about half an inch in di- 

 ameter. It was not regularly oval, but somewhat flattened on its 

 lower side. It consisted externally of two oblong oval pieces of 

 a leaf, fastened together in the neatest manner by their edges, but 

 the seams made a little ridge on each side of the case; this had 

 beco"me dry and faded, and was lined within with a thick and 

 tough layer of brownish silk, in which there was left, at each end, 

 a circular opening just big enough for the caterpillar to pass 

 through. The caterpillar was cylindrical, about as thick as a 

 common pipe-stem, of a light reddish brown color with a paler 

 line along the back ; it was rough, with little elevated points ; its 

 head and the top of the first ring were black, hard, and rough 

 also. The head was provided with a pair of jointed feelers, 

 which the insect extended and drew in at pleasure, and which, 

 when they were out, were kept in continual motion. On each side 

 of the middle of the head, there was a black and flexible kind of 



* Named in honor of Dr. F. E. Melsheimer, (the son of the Rev. F. V. Melshei- 

 .mer, the father of American Entomology, as he has been called,) from whom I 

 have received specimens of this insect, and its curious case. 



