226 ORDER LEPIDOPTERA. 



Female : Head, thorax, wings, and lower abdomen white or faint cream-color : upper 



part of the abdomen, and lower part of the thorax except extremity, buff. Wing* 



spotted with black : hindwings prominently marked with a black lunate spot neai 



the centre. Abdomen marked with black spots as in the male. 



The caterpillars appear in the salt marshes in the vicinity of Boston, according to Mr. 



Harris, towards the end of June, and grow rapidly till the first of August, when they 



attain their size, which is about 1 1 inch long, and clothed with hairs. They then retreat to 



the uplands, in order to undergo their transformation : for this end, they seek a sheltered 



place, and construct of silk and the hairs of their bodies a coarse cocoon, and soon change 



to a chrysalid ; in which state, in the latitude of Boston, they continue until the next year, 



when they are transformed into moths. The caterpillar is clothed with long tufts of hairs, 



which grow from warts, either brown or black, or of various shades of brown : the skin 



is yellow, though shaded at the sides with black ; the back is also marked with a blackish 



line*. 



 This insect not only inhabits the coast or saltmarshes, but is found abundantly inland 

 in Berkshire county, and in Albany and vicinity. It is destructive of the grass of salt- 

 meadows ; and when it retreats from them to undergo its transformation, it devours the 

 more valuable vegetables, as corn, beans, and garden plants. The remedy proposed by Mr. 

 Harris is to mow the marshes eai-ly, while the caterpillar is immature : it is thereby 

 destroyed. 



Spilosoma arge. ( Plate xli, fig. 3.) 



Antennse doubly pectinated : teeth short on the upper side. Color at the base whitish, or 



cream-colored ; extremities dark brown. 

 Moth : Upper side cream-colored, somewhat variable in its shades. Collar marked by two 

 black lines ; upper side of the thorax by three black lines, widely separated. Anterior 

 wings cream-colored, and marked with many triangular spots : the inner margin has a 

 wide line running parallel with it ; the other spots are small acute triangles : margin 

 beneath pale fuscous. Posterior wings marked mostly on the posterior margin by four 

 black spots, sometimes only dusky. Posterior margins of both pair ciliated ; and just 

 within this border there is a fuscous or reddish line. Inferior surface dusky cream- 

 colored, and marked like the superior, except that the anterior margin of the anterior 

 wings is bordered with fuscous. Neck covered with vermilion red hairs j throat black. 

 The cream-colored abdomen is ornamented with five rows of black spots ; two upon 

 the sides, and one upon the centre of the back. Femora red anteriorly : joints and 

 tibiae black in front ; tarsi black. Expansion of wing, nearly two inches, but variable. 



* IlA.KUf : lowcU iojurioas tg vegetation, p. 269, 2d •dition. S«e alM 7 vol. Mass. Agr. Bep. & Jour. 1828. 



