The Moths and Butterflies 



413 



summer. They expand ij inches. There is much variation in color and 

 pattern in both moths and caterpillars, many varieties being found in a 

 single tree. 



Among the most strikingly colored and patterned Arctians are the numerous 

 species of Apanresis (Arctia). A. virgo (PI. VI, Fig. 3), a common species 

 in the Atlantic states, whose larva feeds on pigweed and other uncultivated 

 plants, expands 2^ inches, has black fore wings with the veins broadly marked 

 with pinkish yellow, and red hind wings with large angularly irregular black 

 blotches. The thorax is colored like the fore wings, the abdomen like the 

 hind wings. Sharply angled black spots on a ground of reddish, pinkish, 

 salmon, and yellowish characterize almost all the many species in this genus. 



FIG. 593. Caterpillar of Halisidota tesselata. (After Lugger; natural size.) 



Striking moths are Arachnis picta (PI. VIII, Fig. 4), with whitish fore wings 

 marked with wavy band-like blotches of pearl-gray, and red hind wings with 

 three uneven gray bands; Ecpantheria deflorata,the leopard-moth of the south 

 Atlantic states, and E. muzina, of the southwestern states, both creamy white 

 with circular or elliptical black spots or rings thickly scattered over the fore 

 wings, but only in a single submarginal series on the hind wings; and Utethe- 

 isa bella (PI. VII, Fig. 7), a familiar little moth of the Atlantic states with 



