230 ORDER LEPIDOPTERA. 



This insect feeds upon corn and a variety of other plants, as the plantain, peas, etc. 

 when the corn is young, its feeding is injurious to the plant. 



Liparidae. 



Antennje doubly pectinate, short, and bent. In the males, the teeth are longer than those 

 of the females, which are also narrow. Feelers hairy, like those of the arctiidce, but 

 longer. Tongue short and invisible. Females : Body thick, and furnished with only 

 rudiments of wings. Males : Body slender ; wings broad. 



These singular moths are hairy like the arciians ; but the female, being wingless, is 

 always found upon or near the cocoon from which she has escaped, and hovering around 

 her is the male or mate. When at rest, the forelegs are extended considerably forward ; 

 while the wings, sloping but little, are folded together over the back. 



Some of the females of this family are provided with wings, though only imperfectly, 

 as they fly but sluggishly. The males are diurnal, and fly during the day in search of the 

 females. 



The caterpillars are also peculiar, being half naked ; and the covering of the remaining 

 portion consists of long tufts of hairs growing from the sides of the body, and from warts, 

 of which there are some six or eight. Some have four or five thick tufts of hair upon the 

 back, cut short and even ; and from the extremities, or from the first ring, two beautiful 

 tufts of long hair project forward in the form of feelers. 



These caterpillars are called tussocks, from the tufts upon their backs. They resort to 

 trees and vines of dififerent kinds, and feed upon their leaves. Their cocoons are oval, thin, 

 and made of silk interwoven with the hair of their bodies. They are more or less injurious 

 to vegetation : indeed some of them inflict fatal injuries upon fruit-trees. 



Obotia LE0OOSTIGMA. Polc EmperoT Moth. ( Plate xxxvii, figs. 1 & d, 6, c : female.) 



Antennae of the males brown upon two-thirds of the posterior part, whitish upon their 

 anterior margin. The markings are two transverse waved lines and one white towards 

 the base, with four thick dashes towards the outer angle : there is also a white an- 

 gular spot upon the middle of the posterior margin. Secondaries brown and black 

 upon the nervures, and margined with a lighter shade of brown. 



Female wingless, or with only rudiments of wings : color ash or brownish ash : abdomen 

 large. 



Caterpillar cream-colored, longitudinally banded with brown, and black upon the back. 

 Head reid, with two large jointed plgncil-shapfed tufts of hairs upon the posterior p^t 



