which are coppery-brown species, having a slight tail to the hinder wings, are the smallest of butterflies. The differ- 

 ent species may be collected from May to October. The family of skippers, Hesperians, are rather small, thick- 

 bodied butterflies, having the antennae hooked at the end like a shepherd's crook. The colors are brown and yellow. 

 The caterpillars, which are green, have large heads. 



Hawk-moths, Sphingida, fly only at dusk, frequenting flowers, into which they insert their long sucking tubes or 

 maxilla. They are very stout bodied, and have thick narrow wings, making them rapid in flight and hard to capture. 

 The larvae are large, green, fleshy caterpillars, having a terminal horn-like appendage. The humming-bird moths are 

 smaller, and have transparent wings. They fly in the sunshine, darting into flowers, or suspending themselves above 

 them like humming-birds, ^fgcriadtc, small, clear-winged insects, with steel-blue bodies, in the larval state are 

 borers. ^-E. polistiformis bores into the root of the grape. The Bombyridce, or spinners, including the silk-producing 

 moths, are known by their large bodies, small sunken heads, and broad wings. The common white miller belongs to 

 this group ; its larva is thick and hairy, and is found very common in gardens. Several of the largest species, true 

 silk-producing moths, of which Samia cecropia is an example, measure six inches from tip to tip when the wings are 

 spread. The larvss are green caterpillars, with scattering tufts of short hairs. Among the owlet moths, or Noctuida, 

 the wings are small and narrow. As the insects are attracted to the light, night is the best time to take them. 

 " The larvae are tapering, and are striped and barred in different ways. The noxious cut-worms are the larvae of the 

 Agrotis moths, some of which may be found in fields in autumn upon flowers ; while others fly only at night, and lie 

 concealed during the day time in chinks of stone walls and like places. The Catocalas have rather broader wings, 

 the hinder ones being beautifully striped with bands of red, yellow, or black. The Geometridce are easily distin- 

 guished by their slender bodies and feathered antenna. The larvae are known as span worms, measuring worms, etc. 

 Many of the species have angulated wings, generally of some shade of yellow, crossed with faint lines of darker 



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