82 LLOYDS NATURAL HISTORY. 



This species, which is the type of the genus Citheronia 

 {^Ceratocampa and Dorycatnpd)^ is common in many parts 

 of North America, and measures five or six inches across 

 the wings. 



The wings are rounded, especially in the female. The 

 fore-wings are greyish-brown, darker or lighter in different 

 specimens, with a row of large yellow spots at the base and 

 another beyond the middle, a large spot at the end of the cell, 

 and several smaller ones on the disc. The nervures are 

 rather broadly bordered with red on both sides. The hind- 

 wings are reddish-brown with red nervures, a few yellow spots 

 along the costa, an indistinct yellow band beyond the middle, 

 and a sub-marginal row of triangular spots. The head if 

 yellow, the thorax reddish-brown, banded and spotted with 

 yellow, and the abdomen is reddish-brown, with a yellow band 

 on each segment. 



The full-grown larva measures about five inches and a hals 

 in length. It feeds on Persimmon {Diospyros virginiana^ 

 Linn.), Walnut, Hickory, and Sumach. It is yellowish-green, 

 inclining to blue, with several black bristly spines on each 

 segment ; the spines on the three thoracic segments are very 

 long, curved and granulated, and are reddish-yellow, tipped 

 with black. These large spines give the larva a most 

 formidable appearance, especially when it raises its head and 

 draws the front segments together, as it is in the habit of doing 

 when disturbed. At the same time it shakes its head from 

 side to side as if preparing to make an attack. The negroes 

 of the Southern States of America call it the " Hickory Horned 

 Devil," and Abbot says that they are so afraid of it that he 

 never saw anyone who would venture to handle it, the people 

 in general dreading it as much as a rattlesnake. " Never- 

 theless," he adds, " it is perfectly harmless, neither stinging by 

 its horns nor any other part. When I have handled this 



