FIELD BOOK OF INSECTS. 



time, Catocalinas are concealed in plain sight when resting. 

 I will not swear that I ever saw a live relicta so neatly 

 placed on just the right spot of just the right tree, a birch, 

 but it surely does require sharp eyes to see a resting 

 Catocala or, for that matter, almost any moth when it is 

 naturally resting. The adults of Catocala are sometimes 

 called Under-wings because of the conspicuousness of 

 these organs. He or she who "sugars" for moths will 

 probably find varieties of those illustrated here, as well as 

 totally different species, for they are fond of sweets and 

 are sometimes numerous. The larva? tend to be plump 

 in the middle, tapering toward both ends. They pupate 

 in flimsy cocoons, which are usually placed under debris 

 on the ground. Winter is usually, at least, passed in the 

 egg state. 



Airs. Stratton-Porter, in la.menting her lack of knowledge 

 concerning the life-history of these moths, takes another 

 whack at some of us : " Professional lepidopterists dismiss 

 them with few words. One would-be authority disposes 

 of the species with half a dozen lines. You can find at 

 least a hundred Catocala reproduced from museum speci- 

 mens and their habitat given, in the Holland Moth Book, 

 but I fail to learn what I most desire to know: what 

 these moths feed on; how late they live; how their eggs 

 appear; where they are deposited; which is their cat- 

 erpillar; what does it eat; and where and how does it 

 pupate. . . . This will tend to bear out my contention 

 that scientific works are not the help they should be to the 

 Nature Lover." Lord bless you, Mrs. Porter! If Dr. 

 Holland had put in all that (He couldn't have done it.) 

 for each of the thousands of species his books help you and 

 others to identify, he not only would have deprived you of 

 the pleasure of finding out these things for youiself but 

 most of the "others," at any rate, would not have been 

 able to own the resulting tomes. It so happens that I 

 have seen Mr. Beutenmuller's uncompleted monograph of 

 Catocala; it tells most of the things known about American 

 Catocala, less than you ask, and there are over six hundred 

 pages of manuscript. Perhaps it will be noticed that I am 

 saying little about eggs; I have to draw a line somewhere, 

 and people have not often asked me about eggs. I hope 



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