LETTERS FROM DR. HARRIS. 191 



You have been very fortunate in raising so many Lepi- 

 doptera from the hirvye. I trust you will keep specimens of 

 the larvfB in spirits. 



The " small copper butterfly " has, by most authors been 

 confounded with the European LyccBna Phlocas. I con- 

 sider it as a distinct species, and in my manuscript it stands 

 as L. Americana. 



There are three moths known to me which have their 

 wings more or less tinted with carmine. One of them is the 

 Dryooampa ruhicunda^ easily. Jmown by its antennas, 

 feathei-ed at base and naked at tip in the male, short and 



simple in the female. Another is Noctua ( ?} guarae^ 



Smith Abbott, known by long simple antennae and long 

 tongue. The third, probablj'- your insect, is Notodonta 

 aurora^ Sm. Abb. The antenntB are longer than those of 

 Dryocamjja., very narrowly feathered, except at the tip, 

 in the male, nearly naked in the female, the tongue very 

 short, eV:c. I hope that you have preserved the larv£e in 

 spirits, 



I do not think your JEgerict, found on the flowers of 

 Asclepias, &c., can be ^. cueurhitce. The latter is distin- 

 guished by its orange colored abdomen, having a row of five 

 or six black dots on it, and by its hind legs, which are very 

 much fringed with orange and black hairs. If you cultivate 

 squashes, especially the delicate Winter varieties of C. 

 mam7neata, commonly called the Autumnal Marrow and 

 Valparaiso squashes, you will probably find the ^geria at 

 this time, every fair day, hovering over them and occasion- 

 ally alighting to lay her eggs. Tetraopes arator^ German, 

 is much like the tetropthalmus^ Foster, or tornator^ F., and 

 is also found on Asclepias. 



By the way, Drury's Spliinx tihialis., from Guinea, and 

 Cramer's hamhiliformis, from Coromandel, with Hubre's 

 Melittia satyriniformis., from Georgia, are very much like 

 our j^geria cuGurhitce^ but diff'er in the color of the abdo- 



