398 LEPIDOPTERA. 



handled ; and that they go into the ground to transform ; 

 but he does not inform us whether they make cocoons. 

 Probably their cocoons are like those of the lo moth, com- 

 posed of a gummy membranaceous substance, covered either 

 with leaves or with grains of earth. 



As far as I can ascertain, these six moths are the only 

 Saturnians which have been discovered east of the Missis- 

 sippi, and they are commonly met with throughout the 

 United States.* The last of them, together with some for- 

 eign species, such as the Tau moth of Europe, seem nat- 

 urally to conduct to the next family, which I call Cerato- 

 campians (CERATOCAMPAD.E), after the name of the chief 

 genus contained in it. This name, moreover, signifying 

 horned caterpillar, serves to point out the principal pecu- 

 liarity of the caterpillars in this group ; they being armed 



* Mr. Audubon has figured two more, apparently sexes or varieties of one 

 species, in the fourth volume of his magnificent "Birds of America." pi. 359; 

 but has not named or described them. He informs me that they were taken by 

 Mr. Nuttall near the Rocky Mountains. Through the kindness of Mr. Edward 

 Doubleday, of Epping, England, the present possessor of one of the very speci- 

 mens from which Mr. Audubon's drawing was made, an opportunity of exam- 

 ining and describing this fine insect has been granted to me. 



Though differing somewhat from the other species of Saturnift. it approaches 

 so near to the Maia that I shall not venture to separate it from this genus, espe- 

 cially as the caterpillar and its habits are unknown. It may be called Saturnia 

 Hera: the latter (a generical name proposed for it by Mr. Doubleday) is the name 

 given by the Greeks to Juno. The specimen before me is a male. It resembles 

 the Maia in form and size, but the wings are not quite so thin, and are more 

 opaque. The fore wings when the insect is resting probably cover the hind wing?, 

 the front edge of which appears to be formed to project a little beyond that of 

 the fore wings. It is of a pale yellow color; on each of the wings there is a 

 kidney-shaped black spot between two transverse wavy black bands; the outer 

 margins are black; the veins from the external black band to the edge are marked 

 with broad black lines; and there is a short black line at the base of the fore 

 wings; the head, fore part of the thorax, and upper sides of the legs, are deep 

 ochre-yellow; and the rings of the abdomen are transversely banded with black 

 at the base, and with ochre-yellow on their hinder edges. The kidney-shaped 

 spots on the fore wings have a very slender central yellow crescent, and those on 

 the hind wings touch the external black band. The wings expand three inches. 

 The other moth, figured on the same plate in Mr. Audubon's work, which is 

 probably the female of the preceding, apparently differs from it only in being of 

 a deep Indian-yellow color, and in having the crescent in the middle of the kid- 

 ney-shaped spots very distinct, whereas in the male it is almost obsolete. 



