560 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Smeared dagger moth 



Apatcla oblinita Abb. & Sm. 



A black-headed, velvety black caterjiillar usually with a conspicuous, somewhat 

 broken, subdorsal, yellow stripe and another one along the stigmatal line, occurs in Sep- 

 tember and October on poplar, willow, alder, Inittonbush and a variety of deciduous trees. 



This caterpillar is very common, though rarely abundant enough to 

 cause material injury, partly because of its very general food habits. 



The full grown larva has a black head, the body is velvety black mot- 

 tled with yellow dots which, along the subdorsal line coalesce more or less 

 to form a somewhat broken, subdorsal stripe. There is a broad, yellow, 

 stigmatal band deeply incised at the white spiracles. The tubercles are 

 black and bear short bristly hairs. There is more or less variation in 

 color; the tubercles may be deep red, or situated in a series of broad, trans- 

 verse, red bands reaching across to the spiracles on each seginent. The yel- 

 low markings may be much more apparent, forming a broad and nearly con- 

 tinuous substigmatal band. 



Poplar tent maker 



Melalopha iiuiusa Hiibn. 



A black, yellow-striped larva, about i '4 inches long, with a pair of large, black 

 tubercles close together on the top of the first and eiglith abdominal segments, feeds in 

 the folded, webbed-together leaves of poplar and willows 



The larva of this species is easily recognized on account of its remain- 



intr in an enclosure forined of several leaves fastened together at the ends 



of the twigs. It is gregarious in habit and ordinarily is not sufficiently 



abundant to cause material injury. 



Description. The full grown larva is about i Y^ inches long with a 

 nearly cylindric body, bearing on the first and eighth abdominal segments 

 a pair of large contiguous black tubercles. The general color of the body 

 is black, irregularly mottled with grayish white. There are four subdorsal, 

 lemon yellow equidistant stripes, a substigmatal line of the same color and 

 beneath, a broad, lemon yellow or orange band mottled irregularly with 

 black and dark brown [pi. 16, fig. i]. The second and third thoracic seg- 

 ments and abdominal segments one to eight inclusive, bear anteriorly a 

 rather inconspicuous subdorsal, black setaceous tubercle between the sub- 



