Plate [XVIII]. fig. 4.
Order: Lepidoptera. Section: Nocturna. Family: Arctiidæ.
Genus. Spilosoma, Steph. Arctia, Latr. Eyprepia, Ochs. Phalæna (Noctua),Drury.
Spilosoma Cunea. Alis albis, anticis maculis permultis, posticis duabus nigris, abdomine concolori nigro-maculato. (Expans. Alar. 1 unc. 5 lin.)
Syn. Phalæna (Bombyx) Cunea, Drury, App. v. 2.
Phalæna punctatissima, Abbot and Smith, Ins. Georg. t. 70?
Habitat: New York (Drury). Georgia and Virginia (Abbot and Smith).
Upper Side. Antennæ pectinated and black. There is no appearance of any tongue. Head white. Back and abdomen ash colour. Anterior wings white, with a great number of spots differently shaped of a sooty black colour. On the external margin are five spots, those nearest the tips being shaped like triangles. Posterior wings white, with a sooty spot on each near the external edge, and a very faint small mark near the exterior angle.
Under Side. Legs black. Breast and abdomen ash colour. The wings marked as on the upper side.
There seems little reason for doubting that this is identical with the Phalæna punctatissima of Abbot and Smith, of which the female is entirely white. The last named species feeds upon the mulberry, persimmon, willow, and wild cherry of America. One observed by Abbot spun up on the 16th of May, and came out on the 1st of June. The whole brood of caterpillars feed together in a web, and will often entirely destroy the leaves of a small tree. The name proposed by Drury evidently alludes to the triangular spots on the margin of the anterior wings, and seems quite as expressive as that employed by Sir J. E. Smith, who seems to have treated Drury's work on several occasions as scarcely deserving of notice.