66 WOOD.NYMPH MOTHS. 
We have in Minnesota a number of such moths, which 
are decidedly destructive in their early stages to our grape- 
vines, much more so than most other kinds of insects. In 
some years nearly the entire foliage of cultivated and wild 
grapes and of the Virginia creepers is devoured by them in 
the course of a few days 
THE EIGHT-SPOTTED FORESTER. 
(Alypia octomaculata Hbn.). 
This is a most beautiful moth, which flies about in the 
bright sunlight, displaying its brilliant colors upon the 
leaves of grape-vines which contrast strongly with the 
black, white, red and yellow colors of the moth. It never 
hides, but always displays its colors. This is evidently done 
as a protection, as these colors are warning colors, which 
tell birds and other lovers of insects as food that the moth 
showing them is not good toeat. The ground-color of this 
fine moth is a deep blue-black; two large pale-yellow spots 
are found on each of the front-wings, and two white spots 
on each of the hind-wings, the one nearer the base being 
much the largest. The shoulder-covers are yellow, and the 
legs partly orange. The sexes differ somewhat, the male 
having proportionately larger and more conspicuous spots, 
and possesses also a white mark along the tip of the ab- 
domen. The wings, when expanded, measure from an inch 
to an inch and a half across. 
The caterpillar is of a light brownish color, with many 
black lines and an orange band across each segment. It is 
distinguished from other similar larve by having eight 
black and white lines on each segment. The caterpillars 
have a peculiar bluish appearance which is owing to the 
blending of the two colors. The head and the shield on the 
first segment are a shiny, bright, deep-orange color, marked 
with black dots; there is a prominent transverse orange- 
red band, faint on segments two and three, conspicuous on 
four and eleven, and uniform in the middle of each of the 
