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.
{35}NOCTUA (ACONTIA?) NUNDINA.
Plate XVIII. fig. 5.