113 
\ 
BOMBYCIDiE .—(Spinners.) 
By John Marten. 
The larvae of this family are usually known as spinners, from the 
fact that many of them spin dense cocoons of silk m which to 
undergo their transformations. _ .. i 
They are generally thick and fleshy, and many of them densely 
covered with hair; others are covered above and on the sides with 
wart-like tubercles, from which arise tufts of simple spreading hairs. 
The hairs of many species are so roughened by minute points that 
in constructing cocoons the caterpillars weave them together without 
81 While 6 many species are properly ranked among the injurious 
insects, some, as the silk-worms, are beneficial, as upon them depend 
the silk industry that is carried on in various parts of the woild. 
Utetheisa bella. Linn. 
Although the moth of this species is so well known but little 
attention appears to have been paid by any one to its preparatory 
states, all we can say in reference to the larva is, that it is yel¬ 
low, marked with black and white rings and that it feeds on the 
blue lupines, and is found in the seed-pods of the Battle-box 
( Crotalaria .) 
Callimorpha fulvicosta, Clem. 
The larva is velvety black above, pale bluish-gray, speckled with 
black beneath, a bright orange-colored median line on the back, 
—8 
