24 



OARDEN TIOEB-UOTB. ITS AUERICAN HISTORY. HOTB DESCRIBED. 



potato vines, may be of utility, namely, holding a pan with an inch. or 

 two of water in it, under the vines here and there, and sliaking and knock- 

 ing the insects oflf into it, the water holding- them from escaping until a 

 quantity are gathered, when they may be emptied into a bag, and another 

 quantity gathered. They can be killed by immersing the bag in boiling 

 water, and its contents may then be fed to the swine. 



11. Garden Tiger-moth, Arctia Caja, Linnseus. (Lepidoptera. Arctiida; ) 



Eating the loaves of lettuce, strawberries, Ao., a large thick -bodied calerpillarnearly two 

 inches long, of a black color with a row of white shining dots along esrch side and thickly clothed 

 with long soft hairs which are black upon the back and red on the nock and sides; enclosing 

 itself in a thin pule brown cocoon from which towards the end of July comes a largo bcoutiful 

 brown moth with white spots and many irregular stripes oroeaing it« fore wings, its bind wingi 

 ocbre yellow with about four large round blue black spot*. 



This truly elegant insect, named Caja or the bride by Linnseus, and the 

 caterpillar of which is popularly called the Garden Tiger in England, is 

 abundant all over Europe, but as yet is quite rare in this country. Several 

 specimens were met with in our State at Trenton Falls, by Mr. Edward 

 Doubledaj', in 1837. A male has long been in my collection, which I think 

 was taken the same year at Canajoharie and presented me by Wm. S, 

 Robertson; and when closing these pages for the printer, on the evening 

 of July 2Tth, 1864, a female came in at the open door of my study, flying 

 slowly around with a rustling of its wings which indicated it to be some 

 moth of a large sisse and heavy body. 



One of Mr. Doubleday's specimens was presented to Dr. Harris, by whom, 

 first in the year 1841, in his Report to the Legislatnre on the Insects of 

 Massachusetts Injurious to Vegetation, it was described as a new species 

 under the name .^rciia Americana, although Godarthad previoasly regarded 

 it as identical with the Caja, in which opinion Boisduval and other French 

 naturalists have since continued to concur. In Agassiz' Lake Soperior, 

 Dr. Harris gives a more full description and a figure of this moth, in 

 which he saj-s the white spots and rivulets on its fore wings are the same 

 as in the European insect, but that it is distinguished from that by the 

 white band margining the thora.^i in front. But in a Euro{>ean specimeo 

 which I have before me, this white band is present and conspicuous as in 

 the American examples, except that it is less broad; which is a circtim- 

 stance of no importance in an insect subject to such great variations in its 

 colors and marks. Thus we are left without any grounds for regarding 

 this as different from the European species. 



This moth measures from two and a half to three inches across its wings 

 when they are extended, the males being a trifle smaller than tlie females. 

 It is of a rich brown color, the hue of burnt coffee, with some of its parts 

 bright ochre yellow or orange red, and it is variegated with .'?pots and 

 marks of milk white, crimson red, dark blue and black. But it varies 

 a&tonisliingly in its colors and marks. I draw the following description 

 of the spots and markings chiefly from the living specimen before mo, in 

 which they appear to occur in their most usual and perfect condition. 



The head is brown. The palpi or feelers form two conical points project- 



