MEASURING-WORMS. 



have good wings. The females have much the same color 

 but are wingless. However, the females are not as seden- 

 tary as those of the Tussock Moth; they scramble out of 

 the earth and make for a tree upon which to lay their eggs. 

 This is where we can easily get the better of them, for we 

 have only to put Tree Tanglefoot or some other barrier 

 around the trunks of our trees and there will be no little 

 Pometarias next spring. But there are two things to 

 remember: first, one can never be quite sure when the 

 females are going to come out, for they may choose a warm 

 spell in mid-winter; and second, there is Paleacritavernata 

 (seep. 196). 



This pretty moth (Plate LVIII) has its 



y " a wings zigzagged with yellow and brown, 



undulata . 



It gets a paragraph because of its nest. 



The female lays a cluster of eggs in early summer on a 

 terminal leaf of wild cherry. I do not know just how 

 they do it but the larvae fasten together the leaves at the 

 end of the twig and the whole family feeds on the walls 

 of the nest. When these walls are nearly eaten, the larvae 

 bend other leaves and fasten them against the nest so that 

 they may have fresh walls to eat. Finally they all leave 

 to pass the winter underground as pupae. This species 

 occurs also in Europe, but probably it is naturally on both 

 sides of the Atlantic and not because of man's migrations. 



The adult (Plate LVIII) is a delicate 

 pale green and the wings are crossed by 

 two lighter lines. This description will fit 

 many species of the subfamily Geometrinae, but to make it 

 more definite without becoming technical would be diffi- 

 cult. At any rate, it is the larva which is of interest here. 

 It feeds on the fruit, and also on the foliage, of raspberry 

 and blackberry. Like its relatives on the daisies (see 

 p. 194) it covers itself with a heap of rubbish fastened to 

 its back with silk. 



The larvae of the Currant Span-worm 

 Cymatophora (plate LVm) feed Qn the leaves of 

 nbearia 



berry as well as of currant bushes; they are 



yellow and plentifully spotted with dark brown. They 



195 



