430 LEPIDOPTERA. 
the same time bending the body semicireularly till the two 
extremities almost meet over the back. They all eat to- 
gether, and, after they have done, arrange themselves side 
by side along tbe twigs and brandies which they have 
stripped. Beginning at the ends of the branches, they eat 
all the leaves successively from thence towards the trunk, 
and if one branch does not afford food enough they betake 
themselves to another. When ready to transform, all the 
individuals of the same brood quit the tree at once, descend- 
ing by night, and burrow into the ground to the depth of 
three or four inches, and, within twenty-four hours after- 
wards, cast their caterpillar-skins, and become chrysalids 
without making cocoons. They remain in the ground in 
this state all winter, and are changed to moths and come 
out between the middle and end of July. 
These moths belong to the genus Pyycera, so named be- 
cause the caterpillar sits with its tail raised up. The an- 
tennae are rather long, those of the males fringed beneath, 
in a double row, with very short hairs nearly to the tips, 
which, however, as well as the whole of the stalk of the 
antennae in the other sex, are bare ; the thorax is generally 
marked with a large dark-colored spot, the hairs of which 
can be raised up so as to form a ridge or kind of crest; 
the hinder margin of the fore wings is slightly notched ; 
and the fore legs are stretched out before the body in re- 
pose. Our Pyycera was named, by Drmy, ministra , the 
attendant or servant. (Plate VI. Fig. 6.) It is of a light 
brown color ; the head and a large square spot on the 
thorax are dark chestnut-brown ; on the fore win<rs are four 
or five transverse lines, one or two spots near the middle, 
and a short oblique line near the tip, all of which, with 
the outer hind margin, are dark chestnut-brown. One and 
sometimes both of the dark brown spots are wanting on the 
fore wings in the males, and the females, which are larger 
than the other sex, frequently have five instead of four trans- 
verse brown lines. It expands from one inch and three 
quarters to two inches and a half. 
