SPILOSOMA ACREA. 173 



have figured it (Plate XX. fig. 2), it is brownish- 

 black, with two yellow lines along the sides, and a 

 transverse series of orange-coloured spots on each 

 segment. From the back of each segment arises a 

 scopiform tuft of blackish hairs, of considerable 

 length. The cocoon is oblong, and of a yellowish- 

 brown colour. (Plate XX. fig. 3.) 



This insect is pretty nearly related to one or two 

 species of the same genus common in Britain. It 

 seems to be very plentiful in several parts of Ame- 

 rica, particularly in Maryland, Virginia, and the 

 vicinity of New York. Abbot states that he found 

 the caterpillar on the cancer weed (Crotularia per- 

 foliata ?J in May, but that it is a general devourer 

 of almost all field and garden plants and weeds. It 

 spun up, in a thin web intermixed with its own 

 hairs, on the 16th of May; the moth came out 

 June 2. Others of the autumnal brood, taken in 

 September, spun on the 18th of that month, and 

 remained in the chrysalis till the 21st of ApriL 

 The moth is less frequently seen than the cater- 

 pillar, as every one must have observed to be the 

 case with our own tiger-moth (Arctia cajaj. Dr. 

 Harris, an American entomologist, has published 

 an account of this caterpillar in the Massachusets 

 Agricultural Repository, under the title of " The 

 Natural History of the Salt-marsh Caterpillar," the 

 name by which it is generally known. It is ex- 

 tremely destructive to almost all kinds of grasses. 

 " When nearly full fed," says the author alluded to, 

 " they become very voracious, and continue eating 



