Order: Lepidoptera. Section: Nocturna. Family: Bombycidæ.
Genus. Saturnia, Schrank. Latr. Attacus, Germar. Phalæna (Bombyx), Linn. &c.
Saturnia Cecropia. Alis anticis subfalcatis, posticis rotundatis; omnibus griseis fasciâ communi fulvâ maculâque reniformi ocelloque apicali (in anticis) ornatis. (Expans. Alar. 6 unc. 6 lin.)
Syn. Linn. Syst. Nat. v. 2. p. 809. No. 3. Cramer, Ins. 4. tab. 42. f. A. B. Catesby Carol. 86. t. 86. Abbot and Smith, Ins. Georgia, tab. 45. Fabr. Ent. Syst. III. 1. p. 408. No. 4. Gmel. Linn. S. N. 2401. 3. Oliv. Enc. Méth. 5. p. 25. 5.
Habitat: New York (Drury). North America (Linn. &c.).
Upper Side. Antennæ very broad, pectinated and black. The head is small and red. Neck white. Thorax covered with long orange-brown hairs. Abdomen alternately with broad stripes of white and orange brown, the latter being edged behind with black. Anterior wings, with two bars crossing from the anterior to the posterior edges, one at about three-fourths of an inch from the shoulders, whitish, edged on the outside with black; the other is orange, at about an inch distance from the external margin. The base of the wing is a fine orange brown. The middle is deep rusty brown, which, towards the upper part, is powdered with buff-coloured hairs. In the middle of this is a large white spot verged with black, somewhat resembling a kidney bean, and is broadly tinged behind with red brown. The extremity of this wing, next the bar, is the same dark brown, and powdered, having a black spot about half an inch from the tip, having within it a semicircular mark of a pearl colour. From this spot to the anterior edge runs a serpentine line of white, bordered on the outer side with red. Between this and the orange bar is a broad tinge of light purple. The other side, next the tip, is light brown, stained with blood colour. From the black spot to the interior angle runs a black serpentine line, inclosing a space of dark buff, between which and the dark buff margin is a light buff irregular streak. Posterior wings similar to the superior, but the orange bar is redder and broader, running parallel with the external edge, and is bordered on the inner side with white; the part of the wing within this is deep rusty brown, with a larger white spot in the middle, verged with black, and tinged behind with red brown. The colour below the red bar is deep rusty brown, the border along the external edge being of a dark dirty buff, whereon are two small dark lines, having an irregular indented line of the same dirty buff above them. The wings are entire.
Under Side. The markings on all the wings are more distinct, and brighter than on the upper. The posterior wings, and the major part of the anterior, being covered with dust-like buff hairs, except the spots and buff margins round the edges. The posterior wings along the anterior edges being verged with white, which becomes broader as it approaches the shoulders.
The caterpillar of this fine moth feeds upon the wild American plum (Prunus Pensylvanica), garden plum, &c. It is thick and fleshy, of a pale green colour, with a pair of small blue spots on each segment, and with two rows of short and setose yellow dorsal tubercles. One observed by Abbot, spun up on the 17th of June, and the moth came out on the 30th of March following. The cocoon is attached to a twig. The outside web is coarse, and the inner covered with silk, like a silk-worm's cocoon. Abbot states that this silk has been carded, spun, and made into stockings, and that it will wash like linen. The species is, however, too rare to be of any utility in Georgia. It is, however, much more abundant in the neighbourhood of New York, and has been bred in England from some brought over in the chrysalis state. It is difficult to rear it in confinement.
SPILOSOMA ARGE.
Plate [XVIII]. fig. 3.