STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
801 
GARDEN TIGER-MOTH. ITS AMERICAN HISTORY. MOTH 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 shaking and knock¬ 
ing the insects off 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 Gaja, Linnaeus. (Lcpidoptera. Arctiidae.) 
Eating the leaves of lettuce, strawberries, &c., a largo thick-bodied caterpillar nearly two 
inches long, of a black color with a row of whito shining dots along each 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 pale brown cocoon from which towards the ond of July comes a large beautiful 
brown moth with whito spots and many irregular stripes crossing its fore wings, its hind wingi 
ochre yellow with about four large round blue black spots. 
This truly elegant insect, named Gaja or the bride by Linnaeus, 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 
Doubleday, in 1837. A male has long been in my collection, which I think 
was taken the same year at Canajoharie and presented me by Win. S. 
Robertson ; and when closing these pages for the printer, on the evening 
of July 27th, 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 size and heavy body. 
One of Mr. Doubleday’s specimens was presented to Dr. Harris, by whom, 
first in the year 1841, in his lieport to the Legislature on the Insects of 
Massachusetts Injurious to Vegetation, it was described as a new species 
under the name Arctia Americana, although Godart had previously regarded 
it as identical with the Caja, in which opinion Boisduval and other French 
naturalists have since continued to concur. In Agassiz! Lake Superior, 
Dr. Harris gives a more full description and a figure of this moth, in 
which he says 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 thorax in front. But in a European .specimen 
which I have before me, this white band is present and conspicuous as in 
American examples, except that it is less broad; which is a circum¬ 
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 the females. 
It is of a rich brown color, the hue of burnt coffee, with some of its parts 
I'f'ght ochre yellow or orange red, and it is variegated with spots and 
mar ks of milk white, crimson red, dark blue and black. But it varies 
astonishingly in its colors and marks. I draw the following description 
<lf the spots and markings chiefly from the living specimen before me, 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- 
|Aq. Trans.] 51 
