412 
LEP1D0PTER A. 
lives one inch anil a half or two inches in length, is of an 
amber color, changing to brown 
on the fore part of the body ; 
and on the upper side of each 
abdominal ring are two trans- 
verse rows of tooth-like projec- 
tions. By the help of these, the insect, when ready for its 
last transformation, works its way to the mouth of its bur- 
row, where it remains while the chrysalis skin is rent, upon 
which it comes forth on the trunk of the tree a winged 
moth. In this its perfected state, it is of a gray color ; the 
fore wings are thickly covered with dusky netted lines and 
irregular spots, the hind wings are more uniformly dusky, 
and the shoulder-covers are edged with black on the inside. 
It expands about three inches. The male, which is much 
smaller, and has been mistaken for another species, is much 
darker than the female, from which it differs also in having 
a large ochre-yellow spot on the hind wings, contiguous to 
their posterior margin. Professor Peck, who first made 
public the history of this insect,* named it Cossus Robinice , 
the Cossus of the locust-tree, scientifically called Robinia. 
It is supposed by Professor Peck to remain three years in 
the caterpillar state. The moth comes forth about the mid- 
dle of July. The same insect, or one not to be distin- 
guished from it while a caterpillar, perforates the trunks of 
the red oak. Mr. Newman f has recently given the name 
of Xyleutes, the carpenter, to the genus including this insect, 
instead of Cossus , which it formerly bore, because the latter, 
being the name of a species, ought not to have been applied 
to a genus. The European carpenter-moth, called Bombyx 
Cossus | by Linnaeus, will now be the Xyleutes Cossus ; 
and our indigenous species will be the Xyleutes Robinice 
* See “ Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal,” Vol. V., P- 67, 
with a plate. 
t See *• Entomological Magazine,” Vol. V., p. 129. 
J Subsequently named Cossus ligniperda by Fabric iu-s. 
Fig. 204. 
