MELSHEIMER'S SACK-BEARER. 417 



fastened to one, and sometimes to both ends ; and before 

 moving again, it came out and bit off these threads close to 

 the case. It could turn round easily within its case, and go 

 out of either end, as occasion required. So tenaciously did 

 it cling to the inside of its case with the little hooks of its 

 hinder feet, that all attempts to make it come wholly out, 

 except by a force which would have been fatal to the insect, 

 were without effect. This kind of caterpillar prepares for 

 transformation by fastening both ends of its cocoon to a 

 branch, and then stops up each of the holes in it with a httle 

 circular silken lid, exactly fitting the orifice, and made about 

 the thickness of common brown paper. There is no great 

 difference in the size or form of the chrysalids which produce 

 the male and female moths ; they are about three quarters 

 of an inch in length : on both of them the sheaths for the 

 wings, antennae, and legs are alike, and are as plainly to be 

 seen ( as on the chrysalids of other winged moths. The 

 chrysalis tapers very little, and does not end with a point, 

 but is blunt behind ; and on the edge of each of the rings 

 of the back, there is a transverse row of little pointed teeth 

 which shut into corresponding notches in the ring immedi- 

 ately behind them. These teeth are evidently designed to 

 enable the chrysalis to move towards the mouth of its case, 

 and to hold with, when it is engaged in forcing off" the lid 

 in order to allow of the escape of the moth. I do not know 

 at what time the moths come out in Massachusetts ; they 

 have been taken in July in Virginia. Both sexes leave their 

 cocoons when arrived at maturity, and both are provided 

 with wings. Their feelers are of moderate size, cylindrical, 

 blunt-pointed, and thickly covered with scales. The tongue 

 is not; visible. Their antennas are curved, and are recurved 

 or bent upwards at the point; the stalk is feathered, in a 

 double row, on the under side, very widely in the males, for 

 more than half its length, and beyond the middle the feath- 

 ery fringe is suddenly narrowed, and tapers thence to the 

 tip ; in the females (Plate VI. Fig. 5) the antennaa are also 



53 



