SPIL0S0MA ACJiEA. 173 
have figured it (Plate XX. fig. 2), it is brownish- 
black, with two yellow lines along the sides, and a 
transverse series of orange-coloured spots on each 
segment. From the back of each segment arises a 
scopiform tuft of blackish hairs, of considerable 
length. The cocoon is oblong, and of a yellowish- 
brown colour. (Plate XX. fig. 3.) 
This insect is pretty nearly related to one or two 
species of the same genus common in Britain. It 
seems to be very plentiful in several parts of Ame- 
rica, particularly in Maryland, "Virginia, and the 
vicinity of New York. Abbot states that he found 
the caterpillar on the cancer weed ( Crotidaria per - 
foliata ? ) in May, but that it is a general devourer 
of almost all field and garden plants and weeds. It 
spun up, in a thin web intermixed with its own 
hairs, on the 16th of May; the moth came out 
June 2. Others of the autumnal brood, taken in 
September, spun on the 18th of that month, and 
remained in the chrysalis till the 21st of April. 
The moth is less frequently seen than the cater- 
pillar, as every one must have observed to be the 
case with our own tiger-moth ( Arctia cajaj. Dr. 
Harris, an American entomologist, has published 
an account of this caterpillar in the Massachusets 
Agricultural Repository, under the title of “ The 
Natural History of the Salt-marsh Caterpillar,” the 
name by which it is generally known. It is ex- 
tremely destructive to almost all kinds of grasses. 
“ When nearly full fed,” says the author alluded to, 
“ they become very voracious, and continue eating 
