THE TIGER-MOTHS. 
345 
brown border on the front margin generally has two short 
angular projections extending backwards on the surface of 
the wing. The hind wings are white, and without spots. 
The body is white ; the head, collar, and thighs, bulf-yellow; 
and a longitudinal brown stripe runs along the top of the 
back from the collar to the tail. This is a very variable 
%/ 
moth : the brown markinn-s on the fore win^s beino; some- 
times very much reduced in extent, and sometimes, on the 
contrary, they run together so much that the wings appear 
to be brown, with five large white spots. This latter variety 
is named Callimorplia Lecontei by Dr. Boisduval. The cat¬ 
erpillar is unknown to me. The caterpillars of the Calli- 
morphas are more sparingly clothed with hairs than the 
other Arctians ; and they are generally dark-colored, with 
longitudinal yellow stripes. They feed on various herba¬ 
ceous and shrubby plants, and conceal themselves in the 
daytime under leaves or stones. 
Most of the other tij^er and ermine moths of Massachusetts 
may be an'angcd under the general name of Arctia.^ The 
first of them would probably be placed by ]\Ir. Kirby in Cal- 
limorpha^^ from which, however, they differ in their shorter 
and more robust antennae, always very distinctly feathered, 
at least in the males. They are distin<ruished from the rest 
by having two black spots on the collar, and three short 
black stripes on the thorax. The largest and most rare of 
these moths is the Arctia virgo^ or virgin tiger-moth. On 
account of the peculiarly strong and disagreeable odor which 
it gives out, it might with greater propriety have been named 
the stinking tiger-moth. It is a very beautiful insect. Its 
* Clielonia of the French, Euprepia of the Germans (from a Greek -word sig¬ 
nifying pre-eminent beauty), and subdivided, by the English entomologists, into 
many genera, founded on minute differences in the length of the joints of the feel¬ 
ers, (See., -which it is unnecessary to regard in this treatise. 
I ]Mr. Kirby’s Callimorpha parihenice and virguncula closely resemble the first 
two or three species -which follo-sv. The European ptuUca, and probably also the 
Nemeophila plantaginis belong to the same group. See Fauna Boreali Americana, 
Vol. IV. pp. 304, 305, pi. 4, fig. 6. 
44 
