coarse hairs, spreading out on all sides like the bristles of a bottle-brush, and growing in clusters or tufts from little warts regularly arranged in transverse rows on the surface of the body. They run very fast, and when handled roll themselves up almost into the shape of a ball. Many of them are very destructive to vegetation, as, for example, the salt-marsh caterpillar, the yellow bear-caterpillar of our gardens, and the fall web-caterpillar. When about to transform, they creep into the chinks of walls and fences, or hide themselves under stones and fallen leaves, where they enclose themselves in rough oval cocoons, made of hairs, plucked from their own bodies, interwoven with a few silken threads. The chrysalis is smooth, and not hairy, and its joints are movable.

Some of the slender-bodied Arctians, with bristle-formed antennæ, which are not distinctly feathered in either sex, and having the feelers slender, and the tongue longer than the others, come so near to the Lithosians that naturalists arrange them sometimes among the latter, and sometimes among the Arctians. They belong to Latreille's genus Callimorpha (meaning beautiful form), one species of which inhabits Massachusetts, and is called Callimorpha militaris, the soldiermoth, in my Catalogue. Its fore wings expand about two inches, are white, almost entirely bordered with brown, with an oblique band of the same color from the inner margin to the tip; and the brown border on the front margin generally has two short angular projections extending backwards on the surface of the wing. The hind wings are white, and without spots. The body is white; the head, collar, and thighs buffyellow; and a longitudinal brown stripe runs along the top of the back from the collar to the tail. This is a very variable moth; the brown markings on the fore wings being sometimes very much reduced in extent, and sometimes, on the contrary, they run together so much that the wings appear to be brown, with five large white spots. This latter variety is named Callimorpha Lecontei, by Dr. Boisduval. The caterpillar is unknown to me. The caterpillars of the Callimorphas are more sparingly clothed with hairs than the other Arctians; and they are generally dark colored with longitudinal yellow

stripes. They feed on various herbaceous and shrubby plants, and conceal themselves in the daytime under leaves or stones.

Most of the other tiger and ermine moths of Massachusetts may be arranged under the general name of Arctia. The first of them would probably be placed by Mr. Kirby in Callimorpha, from which, however, they differ in their shorter and more robust antennæ, always very distinctly feathered, at least in the males. They are distinguished from the rest by having two black spots on the collar, and three short black stripes on the thorax. The largest and most rare of these moths is the Arctia virgo, or virgin tiger-moth. On account of the peculiarly strong and disagreeable odor which it gives out, it might, with greater propriety, have been named the stinking tiger-moth. It is a very beautiful insect. Its fore wings expand from two inches to two and a half, are flesh-red, fading to reddish buff, and covered with many stripes and lance-shaped spots of black; the hind wings are vermilion-red, with seven or eight large black blotches; the under side of the body is black, the upper side of the abdomen vermilion-red, with a row of black spots close together along the top of the back. The caterpillar is brown, and pretty thickly covered with tufts of brown hairs. The moth appears here in the latter part of July and August. The Arge tiger-moth resembles the preceding, but is smaller, and not so highly colored, and the black markings on the fore wings are smaller, and separated from each other by wider spaces. Its general tint is a light flesh-color, fading to nankin; the fore wings are marked with streaks and small triangular spots of black; the hind wings are generally deeper colored than the fore wings, and have from five to seven or eight black spots of different sizes upon them; there are two black spots on the collar, and three on the thorax, as in the preceding species; the abdomen is of the color of the hind wings, with a longitudinal row of black dots on the top, another on each side, and two rows, of larger size, beneath. The wings expand from one inch and three quarters to two inches. I have taken this moth from the twentieth of May till the middle of July. The caterpillar appears here sometimes in large swarms, in the month of October, having then become fully grown, measuring

about one inch and a half in length, and being at this time in search of proper winter quarters wherein to make their cocoons. They are of a dark greenish gray color, but appear almost black from the black spots with which they are thickly covered; there are three longitudinal stripes of flesh white on the back, and a row of kidney-shaped spots of the same color on each side of the body. The warts are dark gray, and each one produces a thin cluster of spreading blackish hairs. They eat the leaves of plantain and of other herbaceous plants, and it is stated that they sometimes make great devastation among young Indian corn in the Southern States.

A much more abundant species in Massachusetts is that which has been called the harnessed moth, Arctia phalerata of my Catalogue. It makes its appearance from the end of May to the middle of August, and probably breeds throughout the whole summer. It is of a pale buff or nankin color; the hind wings next to the body and the sides of the body are reddish; on the fore wings are two longitudinal black stripes and four triangular black spots, the latter placed near the tip; and these stripes and spots are arranged so that the buff-colored spaces between them somewhat resemble horse-harness; the hind wings have several black spots near the margin; there are two dots on the collar, three stripes on the thorax, and a stripe along the top of the back, of a black color; the under side of the body and the legs are also black. The wings expand from one inch and a half to one inch and three quarters. The caterpillar is not yet known to me. This moth, in many respects, resembles one called Phyllira† by Drury, rarely found here, but abundant in the Southern States; the fore wings of which are black, with one longitudinal line, two transverse lines, and near the tip two zigzag lines forming a W, of a buff color.

The feelers and tongue of the foregoing moths, though short, are longer than in the following species, which have these parts, as well as the head, smaller and more covered with hairs. Some of the latter may be said to occupy the centre or chief

* Abbot's Insects of Georgia, p. 125, pl. 63. + More properly Philyra.

place among the Arctians, exceeding all the rest in the breadth of their wings, the thickness of their bodies, and the richness of their colors. Among these is the great American tigermoth, Arctia Americana, an undescribed species, which some of the French entomologists have supposed to be the same as the great tiger, Arctia Caja, of Europe. Of this fine insect I have a specimen, which was presented to me by Mr. Edward Doubleday, who obtained it, with several others, near Trenton Falls in New York. It has not yet been discovered in Massachusetts, but will probably be found in the western part of the State. The fore wings of the Arctia Americana expand two inches and a half or more; they are of a brown color, with several spots and broad winding lines of white, dividing the brown surface into a number of large irregular blotches; the hind wings are ochre-yellow, with five or six round blue-black spots, three of them larger than the rest; the thorax is brown and woolly; the collar edged with white before and with crimson behind; the outer edges of the shoulder-covers are white; the abdomen is ochre-yellow, with four black spots on the middle of the back; the thighs and fore legs are red, and the feet dark brown. This moth closely resembles the European Caja, and especially some of its varieties, from all of which, however, it is essentially distinguished by the white edging of the collar and shoulder-covers, and the absence of black lines on the sides of the body. It is highly probable that specimens may occur with orange-colored or red hind wings like the Caja, but I have not seen any such. The caterpillar of our species probably resembles that of the Caja, which is dark chestnut-brown or black, clothed with spreading bunches of hairs, of a foxy red color on the fore part and sides of the body, and black on the back; but the clusters of hairs, though thick, are not so close as to conceal the breathing holes, which form a distinct row of pearly white spots on each side of the body. These caterpillars eat the leaves of various kinds of garden plants, without much discrimination, feeding together in considerable numbers

Godart. Lepidopt. de France, T. IV., p. 303. It is figured in the "Lake Superior" of Agassiz and Cabot, pl. 7, fig. 5.

on the same plant when young, but scattering as they grow older.

Of all the hairy caterpillars frequenting our gardens, there are none so common and troublesome as that which I have called the yellow bear. Like most of its genus it is a very general feeder, devouring almost all kinds of herbaceous plants with equal relish, from the broad-leaved plantain at the doorside, the peas, beans, and even the flowers of the garden, and the corn and coarse grasses of the fields, to the leaves of the vine, the currant, and the gooseberry, which it does not refuse when pressed by hunger. This kind of caterpillar varies very much in its colors; it is perhaps most often of a pale yellow or straw color, with a black line along each side of the body, and a transverse line of the same color between each of the segments or rings, and it is covered with long pale yellow hairs. Others are often seen of a rusty or brownish yellow color, with the same black lines on the sides and between the rings, and they are clothed with foxy red or light brown hairs. The head and ends of the feet are ochre-yellow, and the under side of the body is blackish in all the varieties. They are to be found of different ages and sizes from the first of June till October. When fully grown they are about two inches long, and then creep into some convenient place of shelter, make their cocoons, in which they remain in the chrysalis state during the winter, and are changed to moths in the months of May or June following. Some of the first broods of these caterpillars appear to come to their growth early in summer, and are transformed to moths by the end of July or the beginning of August, at which time I have repeatedly taken them in the winged state; but the greater part pass through their last change in June. The moth is familiarly known by the name of the white miller, and is often seen about houses. Its scientific name is Arctia Virginica, and, as it nearly resembles the insects commonly called ermine-moths in England, we may give to it the name of the Virginia ermine-moth.

It

s white, with a black point on the middle of the fore wings, and two black dots on the hind wings, one on the middle and the other near the posterior angle, much more distinct on the