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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Fig. 7. — The clover-hay caterpillar and gold-fringe 

 moth, PvKALis cosTALis.- 1,2, larva ; 3, cocoon; 

 4, pupa ; 5, 6, moth ; 7, larva within the web. 

 (From Riley.) 



Description of Moth and Larva. 



The moth is about three-fourths of an inch in spread of wings, of a 



reddish-brown or purphsh color. Its front wings are marked with two 



yellow spots on their front margin, 



the outer one of which is the 



larger, and with two faint yellow 



lines extending from, these to the 



inner margin ; the hind wings 



are crossed by two wavy yellowish 



lines. The fringes of both pairs 



are long, with a silken luster and 



are golden-yellow in color : this 



last feature has given the moth in 



Europe the pretty popular name 



of the " Gold-Fringe." As the 



insect will seldom be met with by 



farmers except in its caterpillar 



form, it may be serviceable to quote its description as given by Mr. Walsh, 



who was the first to describe it: 



Length half an inch ; diameter, 0.07 inch, tapering slightly at each end ; 

 color a dirty greenish -brown; beneath, yellowish brown; the first and last 

 segment above, shining, smooth and yellowish-brown with a few irregular 

 whitish hairs; segments 2-11 each, with a transverse row of about six 

 long whitish hairs, each hair proceeding from a lighter colored tubercle 

 with a dark central spot. Head rufous. Legs and prolegs normal, viz., 

 six legs, eight abdominal prolegs and two anal prolegs. Wriggles much 

 and runs backward like a Tortrix; suspends itself by a thread, and spins 

 a whitish web while still in the larva state and before the time arrives for 

 passing into the pupa state. 



Correspondents of Mr, Walsh give as additional characteristics of the 



" worms " that they are " ridged," and have " the extremities a little 



darker than the center." 



Its European History. 



From its not being recorded as an injurious species by European 

 writers, although known for over a hundred years, it is doubtless another 

 instance of introduced insects becoming pestiferous with us which were 

 not harmful in their native home. It is not treated of by Westwood, 

 Curtis, Whitehead, or other European economic entomologists, so far as 

 I know. Miss Ormerod, in her Seventeenth Report, in an extended 

 notice oi Pyralis glancinalis Linn., the " Hay-stack Moth," which is the 



