OF NORTH AMERICA. 55 



BOMBYCIDJE. 

 LITHOSIINS;. 

 l.-UTETHEISA. HUbner. 



"Head small, smooth, with ocelli. Eyes prominent. Antennce 

 simple in each sex, rather short and slightly pilose beneath in the 

 males. Palpi curved, ascending nearly to the middle of the face, 

 squamose, basal joint tumid, middle joint long, terminal joint short, 

 ovate. Tongue about equal to the thorax beneath. 



" Fore wings elongate-trigonate, length exceeding that of the body 

 by at least one-third ; subcostal vein with a nar- 

 row cell above the discal vein, with a single mar- 

 ginal branch arising anteriorly to it and one from 

 its hinder apex; the subcostal vein continues to- 

 wards the tip of the wing from the apex of the sub- 

 costal cell subdividing into post-apical and apical 

 branches, the latter furcate. Discal vein simple, 

 angulated. Median four-branched, the posterior very remote from the 

 other branches. 



« " In the hind wings the subcostal vein is bifid from the origin of 

 the discal. Clemens, Syn. Lep. N. Am., p. 313. 



The species of this genus are of wide geographical distribution, and 

 their unusual variation renders the limitation and determination of the 

 species a most difficult task, and one which can only be solved by a 

 thorough knowledge (which we do not at present possess,) of their 

 preparatory stages. U. pulchella of Europe is claimed by many writers 

 to be identical with an Australian species which also occurs as far north 

 as the Phillipine Islands ; and there are many reasons why the three 

 forms found in North America, and which I have enumerated as spe- 

 cifically distinct, should be united under one common name. It is 

 somewhat surprising that common as this insect is in some localities, 

 its history should not be better known. It may be that some fortunate 

 individual has raised it from its larval stage, but has failed to make its 

 history a matter of record. To any such I can only say that there is 

 no more important service to be rendered to the science than the care- 



