fAsSEMBLT 
half grown they scatter themselves and thenceforth live apart and 
solitary. The state of the atmosphere influences them somewhat 
as to the time of spinning their cocoons. Ten worms which I 
reared in a cage together from their infancy, after a period of 
severe drouth, on the occurrence of a rainy day the second of 
September, spun their cocoons simultaneously, all save one, which 
performed this labor ten days earlier. When ready to form its 
cocoon the caterpillar crawls into some secure cavity, in the 
crevices of a wall or beneath a stone, to which the cocoon is very 
slightly attached. From this the winged moth is given out the 
following spring, though when reared in a dry room I have known 
individuals to come forth in their winged state the latter part of 
October and in November. These moths pertain to the family 
AKcniDiE or the Tiger-moths. They cannot be referred to any 
of the genera defined by the European naturalists, and Dr. Harris 
(New England Insects, p. 279) has therefore constructed for them 
a genus which he names Lophocampa, a word meaning crested 
caterpillar. He indicates fou» species pertaining to this genus, 
and the caterpillars of tw'o additional species are known to me. 
The Cocoons of the hickory tussock-moth are of a regular oval form, nearly an 
inch long and over a half inch broad, of an ash gray color, composed exteriorly of the 
short stiff hairs of the caterpillars, woven loosely together and with their points 
standing in all directions, so that it is impossible to touch one of these cocoons with¬ 
out having the skin filled with these hairs, resembling cowhage and producing 
the same irritation of the ^kin which that substance causes. The pencils of 
long black hairs of the caterpillar are separated and drawn in among the others 
so skilfully that the eye is seldom able to discern their color. The whole are 
held together by a thin clothlike fabric formed of white silken threads matted 
closely together which lines the cocoon upon its inner side. Its 
texture is so slight that when the moth is ready to leave the cocoon, 
by merely crowding its head forward it ruptures it at one end and 
forms a round orifice through which it makes its exit, elongating 
the cocoon slightly hereby, at this end, as represented in the ac¬ 
companying figure. * 
The Cbry8aus or Pupa lies in the cocoon with the black head and other relics of 
the larva at its pointed end. It is 0.70 long by 0.30 in diameter, of a pale chestnut 
color, its sutures marked by slender black impressed lines and the breathing pores 
forming a row of seven ovaltblack dots along each side. Its surface is smooth, with¬ 
out those rows of little spines which we see in the pupa of the peach borer and seve¬ 
ral other moths, and the empty shell remains within the cocoon after the moth is 
disclosed. The figure presents a dorsal view of the sutures, breath¬ 
ing pores, &c., but is unduly contracted on the anterior half, the 
width hero being the same as across the middle. 
