THE AMERICAN CLOSTERA. 
433 
Fig. 215. 
sects can be seen through them ; hut they are protected 
by their situation, or by the dead leaves and other matters 
under which they are made. As soon as the cocoons are 
finished, the insects become chrysalids 
(Fig. 215), and remain quiet through 
the winter ; and about the middle of 
June, or somewhat later, they are trans- 
formed to moths. They belong to the genus Clostera, or 
spinner, so named on account of the spinning habits of the 
caterpillars. The antennae are narrowly feathered or pec- 
tinated in both sexes ; the thorax has an elevated crest in 
the middle ; the tail is tufted and turned up at the end, in 
the males ; the fore legs are thickly covered with hairs to the 
end, and are stretched out before the body when the insect is 
at rest. 
Our poplar spinner may be called Clostera Americana , 23 
the American Clostera. (Plate VI. Fig. 12.) It closely 
resembles the European anastomosis , from which, however, 
it differs essentially in its caterpillar state, and the moth 
presents certain characters, which, on close comparison with 
the European insect, will enable us to distinguish it from 
the latter. It is of a brownish-gray color ; the fore wings 
are faintly tinged with pale lilac, and more or less cloud- 
ed with rust-red ; they have an irregular row of blackish 
dots near the outer hind margin, and are crossed by three 
whitish lines, of which the first nearest the shoulders is 
broken and widely separated in the middle, the second 
divides into two branches, one of which goes straight across 
the wing to the inner margin, and the other passes obliquely 
till it meets the end of the third line, with which it forms an 
angle or letter V ; across the middle of the hind wings there 
is a narrow brownish band, much more distinct beneath than 
above ; on the top of the thorax there is an oblong chestnut- 
[ - 3 Tliis name cannot stand. It is the C. incluta, Hiibner, Zutr. Dr. Harris has 
somewhere said that ho had no opportunity of consulting Hiibner’s works, and 
hence is not to be blamed for naming what ho conceived to be a new species. — 
Morris. 1 
55 
