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L E P I D 0 P T K E A . 
handled ; and that they go into the ground to transform • 
but he does not inform us whether they make cocoons. 
Probably their cocoons are like those of the Io moth, com- 
posed of a gummy membranaceous substance, covered either 
with leaves or with grains of earth. 
As far as I can ascertain, these six moths are the only 
Saturnians which have been discovered east of the Missis- 
sippi, and they are commonly met with throughout the 
United States.* The last of them, together with some for- 
eign species, such as the Tau moth of Europe, seem nat- 
urally to conduct to the next family, which I call Cerato- 
campians (CeratocampadJe), after the name of the chief 
genus contained in it. This name, moreover, signifying 
horned caterpillar, serves to point out the principal pecu- 
liarity of the caterpillars in this group ; they being armed 
* Mr. Audubon has figured two more, apparently sexes or varieties of one 
species, in the fourth volume of his magnificent “Birds of •America," pi. 359; 
but has not named or described them. He informs me that they were taken by 
Mr. Nuttall near the Rocky Mountains. Through the kindness of Mr. Edward 
Doubleday, of Epping, England, the present possessor of one of the very sped-' 
mens from which Mr. Audubon’s drawing was made, an opportunity of exam- 
ining ami describing this fine insect has been granted to me. 
Though differing somewhat from the other species of Satuvnia , it approaches 
so near to the Main that I shall not venture to separate it from this genus, espe- 
cially as the caterpillar and its habits arc unknown. It may be called Saturniu 
Hera: the latter (a generical name proposed for it by Mr. Doubleday) is the name 
given by the Greeks to Juno The specimen before me is a male. It resembles 
the Main in form and size, but the wings are not quite so thin, and are more 
opaque. The fore wings when the insect is nesting probably cover the hind wings, 
the front edge of which appears to be formed to project a little beyond that of 
the fore wings. It is of a pale yellow color; on each of the wings there is a 
kidney-shaped black spot between two transverse wavy black bands; the outer 
margins are black; the veins from the external black band to the edge are marked 
with broad black lines; and there is a short black line at the base of the fore 
wings; the head, fore part of the thorax, and upper sides of the legs, are deep 
ochre-yellow ; and the rings of the abdomen are transversely handed with black 
at the base, and with ochre-yellow on their hinder edges. The kidney-shaped 
spots on the fore wings have a very slender central yellow crescent, and those on 
the hind wings touch the external black band. The wings expand three inches. 
The other moth, figured on the same plate in Mr. Audubon’s work, which is 
probably the female of the preceding, apparently differs from it only in being of 
a deep Indian-yellow color, and in having the crescent in the middle of the kid- 
ney-shaped spots very distinct, whereas in the male it is almost obsolete. 
