46 



emitting spinose setse. It is, I presume, by the assistance of these setse that " the cater- 

 pillar stings very shai'ply," as stated by Abbot. When small the whole brood lives 

 together, but they disperse as they grow larger. One of these larvae, in Virginia, went into 

 the ground on the 1st of July, and the moth came out on the 20th of October; whilst in 

 Georgia another buried itself on the 14th of June, and the fly did not appear until the 

 8th of December ; after which other individuals kept coming out from time to time until 

 the l6th of February. The male appears by day, and flies very swiftly, mounting and 

 descending. The moth is called in America the Buck-fly, from an erroneous idea that its 

 caterpillars are bred in the heads of the buck, which blow them out of their nostrils. 

 This opinion originates from the fly coming out in the rutting season whilst the bucks 

 are pursuing the does ; the hunters therefore take notice of the insect in order to know 

 the proper season for their sport, which is later in Georgia than in Virginia, as is also the 

 appearance of the moth. They are much more plentiful in the last-mentioned country. 

 (Abbot, loc. cit.) 



The specific name of Drury having the priority, I have retained it ; although that 

 subsequently proposed by Fabricius is far more expressive, recalling, as Sir J. E. Smith 

 observes, the idea of a fair flower which had 



" by gloomy Dis been gathered," 

 now become as grizly as the grim monarch of the infernal regions himself. 



EREBUS EDUSA. 



Plate XXrV. fig. 4. 



Order ; Lepidoptera. Section : Nocturna. Family : Noctuidse, Leat-h. 

 Genus. Erebus, Latr. Thysania, Dalm. Phalaena (Noctua), Drury. 



Erebus Edusa. Alls castaneis fusco Irroratis, anticis maculis nonnullis baseos alterisque duabus majoribus 



apicalibus; apiceque posticarum (nigro punctato) albis. (Expans. Alar. 2 unc. 2 lln.) 

 SvN. Phalaena (Noctua) Edusa, Drury, App. vol. 2. 

 Habitat: New York. 



Upper Side, Antennae brown and filiform. Thorax, abdomen, and wings of a fine red sandy brown 

 colour ; the first ring of the abdomen with an ash-coloured spot. Anterior wings with two whitish oblong 

 spots on the external edges of each ; one near the tips, the other at the lower corners. A small whitish 

 bar crosses these wings about a quarter of an inch from the body ; and next the shoulders is a spot of the 

 same whitish colour. Posterior wings brown, with an oblong whitish spot placed along the external 

 edges, reaching from the abdominal almost to the upper comers. Cilia brown. 



Under Side. Palpi brown. Tongue short. Breast, sides, and legs paler than on the upper side. 

 Wings pale sandy-coloured, except a few small, round, dark spots dispersed over them, but scarcely dis- 

 cernible. Margins of all the wings dentated. 



