THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ENTOMOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS— No. 2. 



BY THE EDITOR. 

 Catocala ULTRONIA. 



In the genus Catocala is included a number of very beautiful moths, 

 many of them of large size, and restricted in their distribution to the 

 northern portions of America. Most of them have the hind wings red, 

 banded with black, and hence have received the 1 common appellation of 

 ' Red under-wings." Some few species, however, have the red ground 

 replaced by white, or by plain black, or dark brown edged with white, but 



these latter are greatly in the minority and much less frequently met with 

 than those with red hind wings. The fore wings are usually of varying 

 shades of rich gray or brown. 



In Catocala ultronia (fig. 1 ) the fore wings are of a rich umber color, 

 darkest along the hind margin, with a broad diffused ash-colored band 

 along the middle, not extending to the apex, which is brown ; there are 

 also several zigzag lines of brown and white crossing these wings. The 

 hind wings are deep red with a wide black band along the outer margin 

 and a narrower band of. the same color across the middle. The ciliee 

 which border the wings are partly white and partly brown. 



The larva feeds on the leaves of wild plum and is also found attacking 

 the cultivated varieties. When full grown, which is about the 20th of 

 June, it is nearly two inches long, a leech-like creature with its body 

 thickest in the middle and tapering towards each end. When at rest it 

 adheres so closely to the bark of the branch and so nearly resembles it in 

 color, that it is difficult to detect. The body is of a dull grayish-brown 

 studded with brownish dots and rows of dull reddish tubercles. On the 

 top of the ninth segment or ring there is a stout fleshy horn, nearly upright, 

 about one-twelfth of an inch long, pointed and similar in color to the 



