colored spot, the hairs of which rise upwards behind and 
form a crest. All the whitish lines on the fore wings are 
more or less bounded externally with rust-red. It expands 
from one inch and one quarter to one inch and five eighths. 
In Georgia this insect breeds twice a year ; and the cater- 
pillars eat the leaves of the willow as well as those of the 
poplar.* 
2. Owlet-Moths. ( Noctuce .) 
Our second tribe of moths, the Nocture of Linnaeus, ap- 
pears to have been thus named from Noctua, an owl, because 
they fly chiefly by night, and are hence called Eiilen , or owl- 
moths, by the Germans. This tribe contains a very large 
number of thick-bodied and swift-flying moths, most of 
which may he distinguished by the following characters. 
The antennae are long and tapering, and seldom pectinated 
even in the males ; the tongue is long ; the feelers are very 
distinct, and project more or less beyond the face, the two 
lower joints being compressed or flattened at the sides, and 
the last joint is slender and small ; the thorax is thick, with 
rather prominent collar and shoulders, and is often crested 
on the top ; the body tapers behind ; the wings are always 
fastened together by bristles and hooks, are generally roofed, 
when at rest, and each of the fore wings is marked behind 
the middle of the front margin with two spots, one of them 
round and small, and the other larger and kidney-shaped. 
A few of them fly by day, the others only at night. Their 
colors are generally dull, and of some shade of gray or 
brown, and so extremely alike are they in their markings, 
that it is very difficult to describe them without the aid of 
figures, which cannot be expected in this treatise. The cat- 
erpillars are nearly cylindrical, for the most part naked, 
though some are hairy, slow in their motions, and generally 
provided with sixteen legs ; those with fewer legs never want 
* See Phaltma anastomosis of Smith, in Abbot’s “ Insects of Georgia,” p- 1 43 > 
pl. 72. 
