THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. Il3 



of the Brazils and the red under wings of the genus Catocala ; which in 

 their great wing expanse, semi-looping caterpillars, and scent pencils, bridge 

 over the gap between the Nociui?ia and Geometriiia. Yet as their wings 

 want the hook, so do their fans want the pouch that conceals them in these 

 moths. Indeed the ghost moths, and the family of the Hepialid(x to 

 which they belong, want so many of those' characters that characterize 

 lepidoptera, that one is led on to the supposition that their progenitors 

 never nrquired them ; and they belong to an older race, that in time past 

 has disseminated itself from Europe to the antipodes of the Maories. 

 Other races, as the species of Psychidae and Coleophora, whose distribution 

 is equally great, are in their economy scarcely indeed less curious ; and 

 the worm-like females of the first, sitting on their caddis-cases composed 

 of straws, bring us very low down indeed in the scale of insect organi- 

 zation and adaptation, while they seem at the same time to transport us 

 back in geological time. 



ENTOMOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS. 

 THE GREAT LEOPARD MOTH—Ecpantheria scribonia Stoll. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



The larva of this insect is comparatively abundant in the autumn 

 throughout most of the Northern United States and in many parts of 

 Canada. It is found feeding on various species of plants, but most com- 

 monly on the wild Sunflower, Helianthus decapetalus. It is about two and 

 a half inches long, with a shining black head shaded with reddish on the 

 sides, and a brownish black body. Each segment has an irregular trans- 

 verse row of tubercles from which spring tufts of rigid shining black 

 hairs, while the spaces between each segment from the fourth to the tenth 

 inclusive are banded with red, the bands being widest and most con- 

 spicuous from the sixth to the ninth inclusive. These bands are a striking 

 feature in the appearance of the caterpillar, especially when it is coiled up 

 as shown in figure 1 2 (after Riley). The color of the under side varies 



