Volume 33, Plate XX / Entomology (Insects)

Spilosoma Acrea & Arctia octulatissima

1. Spilosoma Acrea. An American Ermine moth, the male cream-coloured with small black spots in rows along the borders and yellow hind wings, the female white with very variable black spots and a marginal row on the hind wings. The caterpillar, white when young and nearly black when full grown with yellow side-lines and orange spots, feeds voraciously on almost all field and garden plants and is known as the destructive Salt-marsh Caterpillar.
2. Arctia octulatissima. The Great Leopard Ermine moth of Georgia and North America, the female near three inches three-quarters, the wings white with ocular black spots tending to form transverse rows on the upper pair and faint spots behind on the lower. The thorax bears ten or twelve annular spots and the abdomen is blue-black variegated with orange-yellow; its brownish-black caterpillar with orange side bands feeds on wild sunflower, cherry, and persimmon.