214 VAPORER MOTH — FEMALE. 



the base of the fringe. The specimens which I have gathered in Washington 

 county have uniformly been of this variety. 



The antennae of these moths are about a third of the length of the wings. 

 They are gray, with a double row of dark brown branches resembling the teeth 

 of a comb. Each branch has a row of very fine hairs, like eye-lashes, along 

 each side, and at its tip three bristles, one of which is much longer and direct- 

 ed inward towards the head. The body is gray, with a small black tuft near 

 the base of the abdomen. The under side is paler and the legs are varied with 

 blackish. 



It is the male insects which we have described above. The 

 females are totally different objects, to appearance, being desti- 

 tute of wings, and having in place of them two small scales the 

 tenth of an inch long and half as broad, situated upon each side 

 of the thorax. The vaporer moth therefore is analagous to the 

 canker w r orm in this respect, the females in both species resem- 

 bling worms more than perfect insects. The body of the female 

 vaporer moth is short and thick when it first crawls from the 

 cocoon, and longer and more cylindrical after the eggs have 

 been deposited, being over half an inch long and a third as 

 broad. It is of an ash-gray color from the hairs with which the 

 body is densely covered, and often a broad dusky stripe runs 

 the whole length along the middle of the back. The colors be- 

 come more dull and obscure after the eggs are deposited. The 

 antennce in this sex are short and not branched as in the males, 

 merely presenting a row of saw-like teeth along their inner side, 

 each tooth having a short bristle at its apex. 



The females merely crawl from the inner to the outer side of 

 their cocoons, and there remain awaiting the approach of their 

 mates, who invariably find them immediately. The instinct of 

 the males for discovering the opposite sex is remarkable; and 

 collectors are accustomed to avail themselves of it for obtaining 

 specimens. By placing a box in which a newly hatched female 

 is enclosed, in the haunts of this species, dozens of males will 

 sometimes be attracted to it. Thus the females commence de- 

 positing their eggs often within a few hours after they have left 

 the chrysalis state. The eggs are from one to two hundred in 

 number, about the size of a mustard seed, white and round with 

 a small depression in the summit. They are placed upon the 

 cocoon from which the female came, and are enveloped in a large 

 quantity of frothy, milk-white, viscid matter, causing them to 



