62 AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGY. 



Hedgehog, constitute their only defensive weapons. The ehrysa- 

 lids are attached to a fixed object by the tail, and in this reversed 

 posture quietly wait for the period of final emancipation and per- 

 fection. 



The larva or caterpillar state of insects, has been aptly stated 

 by the great Linne, to be a masked condition of the animal, con- 

 cealing beneath its rude vermicular garb all the parts of the 

 future perfect insect; the pupa he compared to an infant en- 

 veloped in swaddling clothes, after the old fashion. Tbe pupa of 

 some species of the present genus presents a singular appearance : 

 two elevations on the head resemble horns, and a prominence 

 upon the back represents a nose of the human face, and but little 

 aid of fancy is required to assimilate such pupse to a grotesque 

 mask. Many of these pupas are worthy of the name of chrysa- 

 lids, by which they were formerly distinguished, being splendidly 

 decorated with spots, resembling burnished gold, and silver. 



Vanessa furcillata. — Specific character. Wings angular, 

 with a common fulvous band, and two fulvous spots on the supe- 

 rior wings; beneath, brown, with black lineations. 



Desc. Superior wings above black, with a broad fulvous sub- 

 marginal band, which is bifid at the costal margin, having the 

 exterior division terminated by a white spot, and the inner 

 division by a pale yellow one ; between the band and the base of 

 the wing, are two fulvous transverse spots ; costal rib near the 

 base, with yellow variegations ; inferior wings above black, with 

 a broad fulvous sub-marginal band, and on the black margin is a 

 series of six or seven small sub lunate purplish-ophalescent spots ; 

 all the wings are blackish, with very numerous transverse blacker 

 lineations, some of which are undulated, and deep velvet black ; 

 a common pale brownish broad sub-marginal band also with the 

 blackish lineations ; antennae yellow at tip of the club ; venter 

 dull whitish. 



Obs. This pretty species we observed several times in the 

 North-West Territory, during the progress of the late expedition 

 under the command of Major S. H. Long, over that region. In 

 the vicinity of Fort William, an establishment of the Hudson 

 Bay Fur Company, it frequently occurred in the month of Sep- 

 tember whilst the party remained at that place. It is closely 



