366 
LEPIDOPTERA. 
more pencils on the fifth ring, and a single pencil on the 
top of the eleventh ring. The warts which produce these 
pencils are more prominent or longer than the rest. These 
caterpillars are called tussocks in England, from the tufts 
on their backs. They live upon trees and shrubs, and, 
when at rest, they bend down the head, and bring over it 
the long plume-like pencils of the first ring. Their cocoons 
are large, thin, and flattened, and consist of a soft kind of 
silk, intermixed with which are a few hairs. The chrysalids 
are covered with down or short hairs, and end at the tail 
with a long projecting point. In Europe there are many 
kinds of Liparians, some of them at times exceedingly injuri¬ 
ous to vegetation, their caterpillars devouring the leaves of 
fruit-trees, and not unfrequently extending their devastations 
to the hedges, and even to the corn and grass.* There do 
not appear to be many kinds in the United States, and they 
never swarm to the same extent as in Europe. 
During the months of July and August, there may be 
found on apple-trees and rose-bushes, and sometimes on 
other trees and shrubs, little slender caterpillars (Plato VII. 
Fig. 1), of a bright yellow color, sparingly clothed with 
long and fine yellow hairs on the sides of the body, and 
having four short and thick brush-like yellowish tufts on the 
back, that is on the fourth and three following rings, two 
long black plumes or pencils extending forwards from the 
first ring, and a single plume on the top of the eleventh ring. 
The head, and the two little retractile warts on the ninth 
and tenth rings, are coral-red; there is a narrow black or 
brownish stripe along the top of the hack, and a wider 
dusky stripe on each side of the body. These pretty cater¬ 
pillars do not ordinarily herd together, but sometimes our 
* These, destructive kinds are the caterpillars of the brown-tailed moth {Por- 
ihesia aurijiua)^ of the golden-tailed moth {Porthesia chrysorrhoea), of the gypsy- 
moth (Hypof/ymnadispar), and of the black arches-moth {Psilura monacha). The 
first of these abounded to such an extent in England, in the year 1782, that 
prayers were ordered to be read in all the churches, to avert the destruction 
which was anticipated from them. 
