376 LEPIDOPTERA. 



ring, and two small elevated black and hairy dots on each 

 ring, except the eleventh, which has only one of larger size ; 

 on each side of the back is a reddish stripe bordered by 

 slender black lines ; and lower down on each side is another 

 stripe of a yellow color between two black lines ; the under 

 side of the body is blue-black. This kind of caterpillar lives 

 in communities of three or four hundred individuals, under 

 a common web or tent, which is made against the trunk or 

 beneath some of the principal branches of the trees. When 

 fully grown they leave the trees, get into places sheltered 

 from rain, and make their cocoons, which exactly resemble 

 those of the apple-tree tent-caterpillars in form, size, and 

 materials. The moths (Plate VII. Fig. 18) appear in six- 

 teen or twenty days afterwards. They are of a brownish 

 yellow or nankin color ; the hind wings, except at base, are 

 light rusty-brown ; and on the fore wings are two oblique 

 rust-brown and nearly straight parallel lines. A variety is 

 sometimes found with a broad red-brown band across the fore 

 wings, occupying the whole space which in other individ- 

 uals intervenes between the oblique lines. The wings ex- 

 pand from one inch and one quarter to one inch and three 

 quarters. The great difference in the caterpillar will not 

 permit us to refer this species to the JVmstria of Europe, for 

 which Sir J. E. Smith* mistook it, or to the castrensis, 

 which it more closely resembles in its winged form. 



Most caterpillars are round, that is, cylindrical, or nearly 

 so ; but there are some belonging to this group that are very 

 broad, slightly convex above, and perfectly flat beneath. 

 They seem indeed to be much broader and more flattened 

 than they really are, by reason of the hairs on their sides, 

 which spread out so as nearly to conceal the feet, and form 

 a kind of fringe along each side of the body. These hairs 

 grow mostly from horizontal fleshy appendages or long warts, 

 somewhat like legs, hanging from the sides of eveiy ring ; 

 those on the first ring being much longer than the others, 

 * See Abbot's " Insects of Georgia," where it is figured. 



