b 



TDBACCO-WOnU. UOTH DESCRIBED. ITS BEAD. ITS BOOT. 



vearmth of spring has penetrated the earth sufficiently to quicken it again 

 into life, its internal parts continue their growtii and development, until 

 the perfect insect becomes formed within the pupa shell. This shell then 

 cracks open and the moth withdraws itself from it, crowds its way upward 

 through the gro\ind, and comes forth in its perfect form. 



We next proceed to describe this insect in its different states. 



The Moth or perfect insect (Plate 4, fig. 1, is densely coated over with 

 hairs and scales, wholly' hiding the surface of the body from view. Ita 

 dimensions vary in the two sexes — the body of the female being somewhat 

 shorter and more thick than that of the male. The former usually meor 

 sures two inches in length, the latter a quarter of an inch more. Its width 

 from tip to tip of the extended wings is much the same in both sexes — 

 seldom varying but a trifle from four inches and a half. 



The Head is pale gray with a brown spot upon each side forward of the 

 eye. The eyes are large and protuberant. Tiic palpi are large and ap- 

 pressed to the under side of the head, with their ends projecting forward 

 and forming a bluntly-rounded apex to the head. The long spiral t<mgue 

 is glossy, yellowish brown, with its basal portion black on each side. The 

 antennffi are almost half the length of the bodj", and somewhat shorter in the 

 female than in the male. They are brown, and on the exterior side hoary 

 gray. They arc nearly straight, and of a thick clumsy appearance, increas- 

 ing in thickness very slightly and gradually from the base almost to the 

 tip, and then rapidly taper into a sharp point, which is curved backward. 

 In the males they have along the two flattened faces of their inner side a 

 fine fringe of short hairs placed at the end of each joint. 



The Thorax is gray, and in front is crossed by two curved black lines 

 meeting at their ends, forming the outline of a crescent having its convex 

 side forwaixJ. And on each side of the middle are two black linos parallel 

 with each other through most of their length, extending backward and out- 

 ward along the edges of the shoulder cover. The hind part of the thorax 

 is brown, with a large black spot upon each side — each cjf tiiese black 

 spots having on its fore side a roundish blue gray spot, which is edged an- 

 teriorly with a transverse line of white or sky-blue hairs. The sides are 

 pale gray, with a brown streak extending from the eye backward to the 

 under side of the wing socket. 



The AonoMKN has the form of a cone nearly three times as long as thick. 

 In the males it is composed of seven rings — the last ones becoming grad 

 «ally shorter, and ending in two compressed tufts of hair, which are of a 

 broad elliptical form, and tapering to a pgiiit at their ends. In tlie females 

 the abdomen is plainly shorter and thicker, composed of but six rings — the 

 last one larger than tiiat which precedes it, and ending in a crown of hairs 

 forming- a short cylindrical brush. On the back it is of a gray color, with 

 a slender black stripe along the middle, a white band at the base, and a row 

 of white spots along each side placed in the sutures — the opposite spots 

 being in some instances prolonged into each other, and thus forming a white 

 band upon each suture. Upon the sides the ground color is coal black — 

 this color being notched into at the sutures by the above mentioned row of 



