3o6 



AN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOG). 



Fig 





black markings are so reduced as to be scarcely visible, except 

 on careful inspection. The caterpillar, which is green and nar- 

 rowly striped, feeds on clovers, and, while abundant, is not prac- 

 tically harmful. 



Among the pets of the lepidopterist are the species of Catocala, 

 a series of large moths with the hind wings black, or yellow and 



red banded with 

 black. We have a 

 great number of 

 s])ecies, and while 

 the hind wings are 

 so prominently col- 

 ored and marked, 

 the fore-wings are 

 mottled gray, 

 brown, and black. 

 They rest exposed 

 during the day up- 

 on the bark of trees, 

 entirely invisible 

 because so closely 

 resembling their surroundings, the gaudy hind wings being com- 

 pletely covered by the modest fore-wings. While some of the 

 caterpillars feed upon cultivated plants, especially the plum, they 

 are never abundant enough to attract attention. 



Last in the Noctuids we have the " snout-moths," or deltoids, 

 the latter term applied from the fact that when the insects are at 

 rest the outline bears somewhat a re- 

 semblance to the Greek letter de/la J. 

 The species are recognizable without 

 much trouble by the unusually long 

 palpi, which in many cases point directly 

 forward and form a decided snout. The 

 only species that has occurred in nuiu- 

 bers justifying the term injurious is the 

 Hypena hjinmli, the caterpillar of which 

 — a slender green creature — feeds upon 

 hoi>s. Within my experience it has never been sufficiently 

 troublesome to make insecticides necessary ; but should it ever 



Catocala ullronia and its larva. 



Fig. 348. 



Hypena humidi, hop-vine 

 moth. 



