THE BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



199 



marked with six black lines 

 and with a black dot on the 

 side of each segment. The 

 currant span-worm (Diastictis 

 ribcaria) is a yellow, black- 

 spotted looper, which often 

 appears in such numbers on cur- 

 rant and gooseberry bushes as 

 to defoliate them very quickly. 



The moths are pale yellow, 

 marked with irregular, dusky 

 spots. Most of the moths of 

 the subfamily Geometrinae are 

 of a green color with the wings 

 barred more or less distinctly 

 with whitish lines. The larvae 

 of one of these, the raspberry 

 geometer (Synchlora glait- 

 can'a), feeds on the fruit and 

 foliage of the raspberry, cover- 

 ing itself with bits of vegetable 

 matter, thus masking itself 

 beneath what is apparently a 

 little heap of rubbish. 



The owlet-moths (Noctuidae) 

 are by far the largest family of 

 the order, including some 

 twenty-one hundred species, 

 ' three times as many as there 



/ 



are North American species of 

 birds," and form the great bulk 

 of the moths commonly taken 

 by collectors. As their name 



FIG. 311. Adult female 

 moth and egg mass and 

 winged male of the fall 

 cankerworm. (Natural size) 



(After Britton) 



indicates, they fly by night (as do all other moths, 



for that matter) and are frequently attracted to lights, FIG. 3 12. Canker- 



.,, ,, r -, i worms in charac- 



bemg the common millers of popular parlance. teristic attitudes . 



They are not readily distinguished from nearly (Natural size) 



related families, nor are the species recognizable (After Bailey) 



