49 



moths reared last spring a few were found that spread but ]4, inch 

 and a few that spread i}i, inches. There is less variation in the 

 markings of the females but an equal or greater variation in size. 

 A female of average size was found to spread i^ inches, the 

 smallest I ^ inches and the largest i^ inches. The two upper 

 rows of moths on Plate VI show the variation in size. The 

 upper row are males and the second row females- 



The following detailed descriptions of the male and female 

 moths are by Dr. Asa Fitch. =" 



" The male moth usually measures 1.20 inches across its spread wings. 

 Its thorax is densely coated with soft hairs of a nankin-yellow color. Its 

 abdomen is covered with shorter hairs which are light umber or cinnamon 

 brown on the back and tip and paler or nankin-yellow on the sides. The 

 antennae are gray freckled with brown scales and their branches are very 

 dark brown. The face is brown with tips of the feelers pale gray. The 

 fore-wings are gray, varied more or less with nankin yellow, and they are 

 divided into three nearly equal portions by two straight dark brown lines 

 which cross them obliquely, parallel with each other and with the hind mar- 

 gin_ is » * * ^ije fringe is of the same dark brown color with the 

 oblique lines, with two whitish alternations towards its outer end. But 

 some times it is of the same color with the wings, and edged along its tip 

 wi'h whitish. The hind wings are of a uniform pale umber or cinnamon 

 brown, sometimes broadly grayish on the outer margin and across their 

 middle a faint darker brown baud is usually perceptible, its edges on each 

 side indefinite. The fringe is of the same color with the wings or slightly 

 darker and is tipped with whitish. The under side is paler umber brown, 

 the hind wings often gray, and both pairs are often crossed by a narrow dark 

 brown band which, on the hind wings, are curved outside the middle. All 

 back of this band, on both wings,is often paler and more so near the band." 



"The female is 1.75 inches wide and in addition to the shortness of the 

 branches of her antennae, differs from the male in her fore-wings, which are 

 proportionally narrower and longer, with their hind margin cut off more 

 obliquely, and slightly wavy along its edge. Hence, also the dark brown 

 lines cross the wings more obliquely, the hind one in particular forming a 

 much more acute angle with the outer margin. And all the wing back 

 of this line is sometimes paler or of a brownish, ashy color. And the fringe 

 of these wings has not the two whitish alternations which are often so con- 

 spicuous ip the male. The head and fore part of the thorax is cinnamon 

 brown. The abdomen is black; clothed with brown hairs, though very 

 thinly so on the anterior part of each segment, where these lines are inter- 

 mingled with silvery gray scales." 



=° Fitch, Asa. Fifth Report, p. 822. 



