336 
LEP ID Ol’TEEA. 
The Glaucopidians,* so named from tlie glaucous or bluish- 
green color of some of the species, are distinguished from 
the other Sphinges by their antennae, which, in the males 
at least, and sometimes in both sexes, are feathered, or 
furnished on each side with little slender branches, parallel 
to each other like the teeth of a comb. In scientific works 
such antennae are called pectinated, from pecten, the Latin 
for comb. 
The caterpillars of the Glaucopidians have sixteen feet, 
are slender, and cylindrical, with a few hairs scattered 
generally over the surface of the body, or arranged in 
little tufts arising from minute warts, and are without a 
horn on the hinder extremity. They devour the leaves 
of plants, and make for themselves cocoons of coarse silk, 
in which they undergo their transformations. The chrysa- 
lids are oblong oval, rounded at one end, tapering at the 
other, and are not provided with transverse rows of teeth 
on the surface of the body. In the caterpillar and winged 
states, in the nature of their transformations, and in their 
habits, these insects approach very closely to the Plialcence , 
or moths, forming the third division of Lepidoptcrous in- 
sects, among which they are arranged by some naturalists. 
There are not many of them in Massachusetts, and only 
one species requires to be noticed liere.f 
This is the Procris Americana (Fig. 163), a small moth 
of a blue-black color, with a saffron- 
rig. 1G3. 
^ 11 ^ colored collar, and a notched tuft on 
the extremity of the body. The wings, 
which are very narrow, expand nearly 
' ™ ' one inch. This little insect is the 
American representative of the Procris vitis or ampclophaija 
of Europe, which, in the caterpillar state, sometimes proves 
very injurious to the grape-vine. The habits of our spe- 
cies are exactly the same ; but have been overlooked, or 
* See additional observations on page 819. 
t For the other species see Silliman’s Journal, Vol. XXXVI. pp. 315 to 319. 
