380 
LEPIDOPTERA. 
It was of a pale sea-green color above, marked with ash, 
blended into white; and beneath of a brilliant orange, spotted 
with vivid black. When in motion its whole appearance 
was changed, it extended to the length of two inches, and 
two thirds of an inch in breadth, its colors brightened, and 
a transverse opening was disclosed on the back, two thirds 
of an inch from the head, of a most rich velvet-black color. 
It was sluggish and motionless during the day, and active 
only at night.” Mr. Abbot found the caterpillar of the 
Velleda lappet-moth on the willow-oak and on the persim¬ 
mon ; and in his figure it is represented of a dark ashen- 
gray color, with a velvet-like black band across the upper 
part of the third ring.* The cocoon of the specimen sent 
to me by Mr. Fessenden resembled grocers’ soft brownish- 
gray paper in color and texture, with a very few blackish 
hairs interwoven with the silk of which it was made. It 
was an inch and a half long, and half an inch wide, bor¬ 
dered on all sides by a loose web, which made it seem of 
larger dimensions ; its shape was oval, convex above, and 
perfectly flat and very thin on the under side. The moth 
came forth from this cocoon on the 15th of September, or 
about forty days after the cocoon was spun. 
The Chinese silk-worm and its moth, Bombyx mori^ the 
Bombyx of the mulberry, should follow these insects in a 
natural arrangement; for the former is slightly hairy when 
first hatched from the egg, and, though naked afterwards, it 
has, like the lappet-caterpillars, a long fleshy wart on the top 
of the eleventh ring. The history of the silk-worm, how¬ 
ever, does not belong to the subject of this treatise. 
There are several kinds of caterpillars in the United 
States whose cocoons are wholly made of a very strong and 
durable silk, fully equal to that obtained in India from the 
tusseh and arrindy silk-worms. These insects, together with 
some others, whose cocoons are much thinner, and consist 
more of gummy matter than of silk, belong to a family called 
* Insects of Georgia, p. 103, pi. 52. 
