472 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORIC 
the oral orifice and the eye. They are clothed with short hair-like scales, their 
tips being very slightly exposed. The basal joint is obconic, compressed, and 
curved; the second or middle joint is scarcely as long as the basal and about 
twice as long as wide, cylindric and compressed; the apical joint is minute 
egg-shaped, and but half the diameter of the preceding joints. The antenna 
in the males have two rows of short hairs along their inner sides, in the females 
they are entirely naked and scarcely a third the length of the wings. 
The following varieties occur in this species. 
a. The third band on the fore wings wanting. 
b. A fifth band slightly forward of the hind one, and parallel with it. Common. 
c. A brown dot and behind it an oval transverse spot or short line between the 
the first and second bands. Common. 
d. The second and third bands straight and not curved forward towards their 
outer ends. 
e. The whole space between the first and second bands darker than the rest 
of the wing. 
/. The fore wings dark auburn brown, sprinkled with black atoms and the 
bands black. 
This insect was first described and figured in the year 1773, 
from specimens gathered in New-York by Mr. Drury. He named 
it PhalcEna minislra , the Latin word ministra meaning a maid-ser¬ 
vant or handmaid. This name was perhaps suggested from the 
plain, modest appearance of this moth, without any diversity of 
colors or gay ornamental marks such as deck the insects of this 
order generally. The Handmaid thus becomes the most appro¬ 
priate common name for this moth, whilst its larva will most 
readily be distinguished by the name Yellow-necked apple-tree 
worm. It belongs to the Order Lepidoptera, and it can be refer¬ 
red to no Family of this order except that of Notodontidje. The 
essential mark by which this and the closely allied Family Arc- 
tiidse are distinguished, is, that they possess a minute rudiment¬ 
ary tongue (maxillae)—the larvae of the latter family being ge¬ 
nerally thickly covered with hairs whilst those of the Notodon- 
tidae are nearly or quite naked. The insects of these two groups 
are thus intermediate between the Bombycidae in which the 
tongue is wholly wanting and the other families of this order 
which have it long and spirally coiled. In none of the genera 
of the Family Notodontidae however is the tongue so long as to 
be coiled, as we find it in the handmaid moth, save one, the ge¬ 
nus Lophopteryx. In this genus also, the larva when alarmed 
throws the ends of its body upwards, in the same manner that 
our insect does. And in many of its other characters It coincides 
