732 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW TORK 
TOBACCO-IVOBM. MOTH DESCRIBED. ITS HEAD. ITS BODT. 
warmth of spring has penetrated the earth sufficiently to quicken it again 
into life, its internal parts continue their growth 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 ground, 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. Its 
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 mea¬ 
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. The palpi are large and ap- 
pressed to the under side of the head, with their ends projecting forward 
aud forming a bluntly-rounded apex to the head. The long spiral tongue 
is glossy, yellowish-brown, with its basal portion black on each side. The 
antennas are almost half the length of ti e body, and somewhat shorter in the 
female than in the male. They are brown, and on the exterior side hoary 
gray. They are 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 back¬ 
ward. 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 I horax is graj 1 ', and in front is crossed by two curved black lines 
meeting at their ends, forming the outline of a crescent having its convex 
side forward. And on each side of the middle are two black lines parallel 
with each other through most of their length, extending backward and out¬ 
ward along the edges of the shoulder covers. The hind part of the thorax 
is brown, with a large black spot upon each side—each of these 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 Abdomen 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¬ 
ually shorter, and ending in two compressed tufts of hairs, which arc of a 
broad elliptical form, and tapering to a point at their ends. In the females 
the abdomen is plainly shorter and thicker, composed of but six rings—the 
last one larger than that 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 
