THE NONAGRIANS. 437 



measures from one inch and three quarters to two inches or 

 more in length. It is of a greenish-yellow color above, with 

 the head, tail, belly, and feet black ; its body is covered with 

 long and soft yellow hairs, growing immediately from the 

 skin ; on the top of the fourth ring there are two long, slen- 

 der, and erect tufts of black hairs, two more on the sixth 

 ring, and a single pencil on the eleventh ring.* While at 

 rest, it remains curled sidewise on a leaf. When about to 

 make its cocoon, it creeps into chinks of the bark, or into 

 cracks in fences, and spins a loose, half-oval web of silk, 

 intermixed with the hairs of its body ; under this it then 

 makes another and -tougher pod of silk, 

 thickened with fragments of bark and wood, 

 and, when its work is done, changes to a 

 chrysalis (Fig. 218), in which state it re- 

 mains till the following summer. 



The caterpillars of the Nonagrians (NONAGRIAD^E f ) are 

 naked, long, slender, and tapering at each end, smooth, and 

 generally of a faint reddish or greenish tint, with an oval, 

 dark-colored, horny spotij: on the top of the first and last 

 ring. Most of them live within the stems of reeds, flags, 

 and other water-plants ; some in the stems and even in the 

 roots of plants remote from the water. They devour the 

 pith and the inside of the roots, and transform in the same 

 situations, having previously gnawed a hole from the inside 

 of their retreat, through the side of the stem or root, to the 

 outside skin, which is left untouched, and which the moth 



* Those naturalists who are familiar with the appearance of the European 

 caterpillar of Apatela Aceris will perceive the great and essential difference be- 

 tween it and that of our American Apatela, which bears about as much resem- 

 blance to the former as does that of Astasia torrefacta of Sir J. E. Smith, an 

 insect apparently belonging to the Notodontians, and near to Clostera and Pygcera. 

 Apatela signifies deceptive ; and this name was probably given to the genus be- 

 cause the caterpillars appear in the dress of Arctians and Liparians, but produce 

 true owlet-moths or Noctuas. 



t From Nonagria, the meaning of which is uncertain. 



t These dark horny spots are found on the first ring of most of the caterpillars 

 that burrow in the stems of plants, or in the ground. 



