173 



This common and widely-distributed species may be known by its large 

 size and numerous, alternating, white and brown, scalloped lines on a clear 

 fawn-brown ground. The circumstances under which this species occurred 

 in Colorado show plainly that it is indigenous in America. 



The west-coast and Colorado examples are a little larger (fore wing, ?, 

 0.80) than eastern examples (fore wing, 9 , 0.70). 



Larva. — "Mr. Beauchamp has favored me with the following life-history 

 of this species : 'I took a female in 1861. She laid me some small, oval, 

 whitish eggs on the under side of a sallow-leaf, generally in the hollow by 

 the side of the midrib or some other rib, often two or more on a leaf, but 

 never adjoining each other. I transferred them to a young tree growing in 

 a pot. As soon as hatched, the caterpillars spun a web resembling that of 

 the Yponomeutidce, and sometimes, like them, several together. When a little 

 older, they bent and fastened leaves together, and ate through the walls of 

 their dwelling until they left only a skeleton, when they went on to another 

 place to behave in a similar manner. They were very sluggish, not taking 

 the trouble to push their tails outside, so that, when they had eaten the walls 

 of their tent, the lower part formed a bag full of their excrement. They 

 usually lay curled up in their tent, and all mine continued to dwell under 

 cover until they went down. I think I never saw them outside, except when 

 they were removing, and once when they had eaten their plant down to the 

 stump. Then they crawled about uneasily until fresh food. was introduced. 

 When full-grown, they were scarcely an inch long, and reminded me some- 

 what of the caterpillars of Eupithecia venosata in their general appearance. I 

 proceed to give a description of them: — Short and stumpy, with a few very 

 short hairs; head small, shining-brown, the two upper lobes round and con- 

 spicuous; dorsal line brown, bordered on the upper side by a slender, broken, 

 whitish line (perhaps this is the true subdorsal) ; spiracular line broad, dirty- 

 white, puckered; the ground-color above the spiracular line varies from pale 

 flesh-color to dark-brown, the belly from pale-gray to dark-gray ; in the 

 dark specimens, the dorsal line is scarcely perceptible, but the subdorsal (?) 

 is perceptibly darker; on the upper side of each of the anal claspers there is 

 a large blackish spot, in addition to which light specimens have a blackish 

 spot on the centre-piece of the anal segment. The chrysalis is in rather 

 a slight earthy cocoon. I kept mine in a tireless attic.'" — Newman's British 

 Moths, 179. 



