. A treatise on some of the insects injurious to vegetation . Insect pests. THE AMERICAN LAPPET-MOTH. 377 which progressively decrease in size to the last. On the fore part of the body one or two velvet-like and highly col- ored bands may be seen when the caterpillar is in motion; and on the top of the eleventh ring there is generally a long naked wart. When these singular caterpillars are not eat- ing, they remain at rest, stretched out on the limbs of trees, and they often so nearly resemble the bark in color as to escape observation. From the lappets, or leg-like appen- dages, hanging to th
. A treatise on some of the insects injurious to vegetation . Insect pests. THE AMERICAN LAPPET-MOTH. 377 which progressively decrease in size to the last. On the fore part of the body one or two velvet-like and highly col- ored bands may be seen when the caterpillar is in motion; and on the top of the eleventh ring there is generally a long naked wart. When these singular caterpillars are not eat- ing, they remain at rest, stretched out on the limbs of trees, and they often so nearly resemble the bark in color as to escape observation. From the lappets, or leg-like appen- dages, hanging to their sides, they are called lappet-caterpil- lars by English writers. Twice I have found, on the apple-tree, in the month of September, caterpillars of this kind, measuring, when fully grown, two inches and a half in length, and above half an inch in breadth. The upper -side was gray, variegated with irregular white spots, and sprinkled all over with fine black dots ; on the fore part of the body there were two transverse velvet-like bands of a rich scarlet color, one on the hind part of the second, and the other on the third ring, and on each of these bands were three black dots ; the under side of the body was orange-colored, with a row of diamond-shaped black spots; the hairs on the sides were gray, and many of them were tipped with a white knob. The caterpillar eats the leaves of the apple-tree, feeding only in the night, and remaining perfectly quiet during the day. The moth pro- duced from it was supposed by Sir J. E. Smith * to be the same as the European Hicifolia, or holly-leaved lappet-moth, from which, however, it differs in so many respects that I shall ven- ture to give it another name. It belongs to the genus G-astropa- chaj® so called from the very thick bodies of the moths ; and the present species may be named Americana, the American lappet-moth (Fig. 176). * See Abbot's " Insects of Georgia," p. 101, pi. 51. [22 Gastrqpacha Americana is G. occidental
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