366 LEPIDOPTERA. 



more pencils on the fifth ring, and a single pencil on the 

 top of the eleventh ring. The warts which produce these 

 pencils are more prominent or longer than the rest. These 

 caterpillars are called tussocks in England, from the tufts 

 on their hacks. They live upon trees and shrubs, and, 

 when at rest, they bend down the head, and bring over it 

 the long plume-like pencils of the first ring. Their cocoons 

 are large, thin, and flattened, and consist of a soft kind of 

 silk, intermixed with which are a few hairs. The chrysalids 

 are covered with down or short hairs, and end at the tail 

 with a long projecting point. In Europe there are many 

 kinds of Liparians, some of them at times exceedingly injuri- 

 ous to vegetation, their caterpillars devouring the leaves of 

 fruit-trees, and not unfrequently extending their devastations 

 to the hedges, and even to the corn and grass.* There do 

 not appear to be many kinds in the United States, and they 

 never swarm to the same extent as in Europe. 



During the months of July and August, there may be 

 found on apple-trees and rose-bushes, and sometimes on 

 other trees and shrubs, little slender caterpillars (Plate VII. 

 Fig. 1), of a bright yellow color, sparingly clothed with 

 long and fine yellow hairs on the sides of the body, and 

 having four short and thick brush-like yellowish tufts on the 

 back, that is on the fourth and three following rings, two 

 long black plumes or pencils extending forwards from the 

 first ring, and a single plume on the top of the eleventh ring. 

 The head, and the two little retractile warts on the ninth 

 and tenth rings, are coral-red ; there is a narrow black or 

 brownish stripe along the top of the back, and a wider 

 dusky stripe on each side of the body. These pretty cater- 

 pillars do not ordinarily herd together, but sometimes our 



* These destructive kinds are the caterpillars of the brown-tailed moth (Por- 

 thesia auriflua), of the golden-tailed moth (Porthesia chrysorrlicea), of the gypsy- 

 moth (Hypogymnadispar), and of the black arches-moth {Psilura monaelw). The 

 first of these abounded to such an extent in England, in the year 1782, that 

 prayers were ordered to be read in all the churches, to avert the destruction 

 which was anticipated from them. 



