THE VELLEDA LAPPET-MOTH. 
379 
veiling between three narrow Avavy Avhite bands, the latter 
being marked by an irregular gray line ; the veins are 
white, prominent, and very distinct; the hind Avings are 
gray, with a white hind border, on which are tAvo inter¬ 
rupted gray lines, and across the middle there is a broad, 
faint, Avhitish band ; on the top of the thorax is an oblong 
blackish spot, widening behind, and consisting of long black 
and pearl-colored erect scales, shaped somcAvhat like the 
handle of a spoon. There is a great disparity in the size 
of the sexes, the males measuring only from one inch and 
a half to one inch and three quarters across the Avings, 
while the females expand from tAvo and a quarter to tAvo 
inches and three quarters or more. 
The caterpillar (Fig. 178, young 
caterpillar) of this fine moth I 
have never seen aliAX ; but one 
AA^as sent to mo, in the autumn 
of 1828, by the late T. G. Fes¬ 
senden, Esq., Avho receh^ed it from NoAvburyport, from a 
correspondent, by Avhom it Avas found on the 6th of August, 
sticking so fast to the limb of an apple-tree, that at first 
it Avas mistaken for a cankered spot on the bark.^ It AA^as 
said to haA*e measured tAvo inches and a half in length, but 
Avhen it came into my hands it had spun itself up in its 
cocoon. A caterpillar of the same kind, found also on an 
apple-tree, has been described by Miss Dix in Professor 
Silliman’s ‘‘ Journal of Science.” f This obserAnng lady 
states, that “ Avhen at rest the resemblance of its upper sur¬ 
face Avas so exact Avith the young bark of the branch on 
Avhich it Avas fixed, that its presence might hav’e escaped 
the most accurate investigation ; and this deception Avas the 
more complete from the unusual shape of the caterpillar, 
Avhich might be likened to the external third of a cylinder. 
The sides of the body Avere cloaked and fringed Avith hairs. 
*■ See “New England Farmer,” Vol. VH. p. 33. 
t Vol. XIX. pp. 62 and 63. 
Fig. 178. 
« 
