417 
MELSHEIMER’S SACK-BEARER. 
fastened to one, and sometimes to both ends; and before 
movino; ao;ain, it came out and bit off these threads close to 
the case. It could turn round easily within its case, and go 
out of either end, as occasion required. So tenaciously did 
it clinor to the inside of its case with the little hooks of its 
hinder feet, that all attempts to make it come wholly out, 
except by a force which would have been fatal to the insect, 
were without effect. This kind of caterpillar prepares for 
transformation by fastening both ends of its cocoon to a 
branch, and then stops up each of the holes in it with a little 
circular silken lid, exactly fitting the orifice, and made about 
the thickness of common brown paper. There is no great 
difference in the size or form of the chrysalids which produce 
the male and female moths ; they are about three quarters 
of an inch in length ; on both of them the sheaths for the 
wings, antennas, and legs are alike, and are as plainly to be 
seen as on the chrysalids of other winored moths. The 
chrysalis tapers very little, and does not end with a point, 
but is blunt behind : and on the edo-e ■ of each of the rino-s 
o O 
of the back, there, is a transverse row of little pointed teeth 
which shut into corresponding notches in the ring immedi¬ 
ately behind them. These teeth are evidently designed to 
enable the chrysalis to move towards the mouth of its case, 
and to hold with, when it is eno-acred in forcinor off the lid 
in order to allow of the escape of the moth. I do not know 
at what time the moths come out in Massachusetts ; they 
have been taken in July in Virginia. Both sexes leave their 
cocoons when arrived at maturity, and both are provided 
with wings. Their feelers are of moderate size, cylindrical, 
blunt-pointed, and thickly covered with scales. The tongue 
is not visible. Their antennae are curred, and are recurved 
or bent upwards at the point; the stalk is feathered, in a 
double row, on the under side, very widely in the males, for 
more than half its length, and beyond the middle the feath¬ 
ery fringe is suddenly narrowed, and tapers thence to the 
tip; in the females (Plate VI. Fig. 5) the antennae are also 
53 
