Plate XXIV. fig. 3.
ORDER: Lepidoptera. SECTION: Nocturna. FAMILY: Bombycidæ, _Leach_.
GENUS. Saturnia, _Schrank._ Attacus, _Germar._ Phalæna (attacus),
_Drury_.
SATURNIA MAIA. Alis rotundatis nigris; fasciâ albâ, maculâ subocellari
nigrâ, ano rufescenti. (Expans. Alar. 2 unc. 3 lin.)
SYN. Phalæna (Bombyx) Maia, _Drury_, _App. vol._ 2. _Cramer_, _Ins._ 2.
_tab._ 98. _fig._ A.
Bombyx Proserpina, _Fabr. Ent. Syst._ III. 1. _p._ 419. _No._ 40. _Gmel.
Linn. S. N._ 2407. 480. _Abbot & Smith Ins. Georg. pl._ 50. _Oliv. Enc.
Méth._ 5. 37. 48. _Pal. Bauv. Ins. d'Afr. et d'Amer. Lep._ _pl._ 24. _f._
2. 3.
HABITAT: New York (_Drury_). Georgia (_Abbot_).
_Upper Side._ Antennæ black, and strongly pectinated. Neck ash-coloured.
Thorax and abdomen black, the extremity being orange. Wings pellucid. The
anterior being black, with a white bar crossing them from the anterior to
the posterior edges; whereon is a semi-eye placed near the former.
Posterior wings black, with a broader white bar crossing them from the
anterior to the abdominal edges; having near the former a black
triangular spot thereon.
_Under Side._ Palpi and tongue indistinct. Legs and thorax black. Thighs
orange. Abdomen grey, having its sides spotted with white; the extremity
orange. Wings coloured as on the upper side, but rather more distinct.
The thinness of the wings occasions the colours to be less distinct and
clear than in most others of this kind. Margins of the wings entire.
The caterpillar of this very conspicuous moth feeds upon the red oak
(Quercus rubra, Linn.), and other species of the same genus. The
caterpillars represented by Abbot are considerably different in colour; one
being dark-coloured, but covered over with minute yellow spots; and the
other yellow, with a slender, dorsal, and two broader lateral black lines.
The head is red, and each segment is furnished with a transverse series of
tubercles, {46}emitting spinose setæ. It is, I presume, by the assistance
of these setæ that "the caterpillar stings very sharply," as stated by
Abbot. When small the whole brood lives together, but they disperse as they
grow larger. One of these larvæ, in Virginia, went into the ground on the
1st of July, and the moth came out on the 20th of October; whilst in
Georgia another buried itself on the 14th of June, and the fly did not
appear until the 8th of December; after which other individuals kept coming
out from time to time until the 16th of February. The male appears by day,
and flies very swiftly, mounting and descending. The moth is called in
America the Buck-fly, from an erroneous idea that its caterpillars are bred
in the heads of the buck, which blow them out of their nostrils. This
opinion originates from the fly coming out in the rutting season whilst the
bucks are pursuing the does; the hunters therefore take notice of the
insect in order to know the proper season for their sport, which is later
in Georgia than in Virginia, as is also the appearance of the moth. They
are much more plentiful in the last-mentioned country. (Abbot, loc. cit.)
The specific name of Drury having the priority, I have retained it;
although that subsequently proposed by Fabricius is far more expressive,
recalling, as Sir J. E. Smith observes, the idea of a fair flower which had
"by gloomy Dis been gathered,"
now become as grizly as the grim monarch of the infernal regions himself.