430 LEPIDOPTEBA. 



the same time bending the body semicircularly till the two 

 extremities almost meet over the back. They all eat to- 

 gether, and, after they have done, arrange themselves side 

 by side along the twigs and branches which they have 

 stripped. Beginning at the ends of the branches, they eat 

 all the leaves successively from thence towards the trunk, 

 and if one branch does not afford food enough they betake 

 themselves to another. When ready to transform, all the 

 individuals of the same brood quit the tree at once, descend- 

 ing by night, and burrow into the ground to the depth of 

 three or four inches, and, within twenty-four hours after- 

 wards, cast their caterpillar-skins, and become chrysalids 

 without making cocoons. They remain in the ground in 

 this state all winter, and are changed to moths and come 

 out between the middle and end of July. 



These moths belong to the genus Pyycera, so named be- 

 cause the caterpillar sits with its tail raised up. The an- 

 tennae are rather long, those of the males fringed beneath, 

 in a double row, with very short hairs nearly to the tips, 

 which, however, as well as the whole of the stalk of the 

 antennae in the other sex, are bare ; the thorax is generally 

 marked with a large dark-colored spot, the hairs of which 

 can be raised up so as to form a ridge or kind of crest ; 

 the hinder margin of the fore wings is slightly notched ; 

 and the fore legs are stretched out before the body in re- 

 pose. Our Pygcera was named, by Drury, ministra, the 

 attendant or servant. (Plate VI. Fig. 6.) It is of a light 

 brown color ; the head and a large square spot on the 

 thorax are dark chestnut-brown ; on the fore wings are four 

 or five transverse lines, one or two spots near the middle, 

 and a short oblique line near the tip, all of which, witli 

 the outer hind margin, are dark chestnut-brown. One and 

 sometimes both of the dark brown spots are wanting on the 

 fore wings in the males, and the females, which are larger 

 than the other sex, frequently have five instead of four trans- 

 verse brown lines. It expands from one inch and three 

 quarters to two inches and a half. 



