THE LASIOCAMPIANS. 369 



are four short square brush-like yellow tufts ; the sides are 

 dusky and spotted with red ; there are two long black pencils 

 or plumes on the first ring, one on each side of the fifth ring, 

 and one on the top of the eleventh ring ; the head is black ; 

 and the retractile warts on the top of the ninth and tenth 

 rings are red. These caterpillars live on various trees and 

 shrubs, and are stated by Miss Dix, in Professor Silliman's 

 " Journal of Science," * to have been " very destructive to 

 the thorn hedges in Rhode Island," " appearing very early 

 in summer, and not disappearing till late in November." 

 The cocoons resemble those of the white-marked vaporer 

 ( Orgyia leucostigma), and the females, after they have come 

 forth, never leave the outside of their cocoons, but lay their 

 eggs upon them and die there. 



The next group may be called Lasiocampians (Lasiocam- 

 PAD^), after the principal genus f included in it, the name 

 of which signifies hairy caterpillar. The Lasiocampians are 

 woolly and very thick-bodied moths, distinguished by the 

 want of the bristles and hooks that hold together the fore 

 and hind wings of other moths, by the wide and turned-up 

 fore edge of the hind wings, which projects beyond that of 

 the fore wings when at rest, and by their caterpillars, which 

 jl^with few exceptions) are not warty on the back, and are 

 sparingly clothed with short, soft hairs, mostly placed along 

 the sides of the body, and seldom distinctly arranged in 

 spreading clusters or tufts. These moths fly only by night, 

 and both sexes are winged. Their antennce generally bend 

 downwards near the middle, and upwards at the points, are 

 longer than those of the Liparians, but not so widely feath- 

 ered in the males, and very narrowly feathered beneath in 

 the females. The feelers of some are rather longer than 

 common, and are thrust forward like a beak; but more 



* Vol. XIX. p. 62. 



t To Lasiocampa belong the European moths called Subi, TrifoUi, Quercus, 

 Jioboris^ Dumeti, &c. I have not seen any insects like these in Massacliusetts, 

 and believe that such are seldom if ever to be found in the United States. 

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