276 



with two 

 The eggs 



The 



black spots on the top of each segment, excepting the last, which has only one- 

 are oval, of a pale colour, and covered with a net- work of raised lines. 



The Poplar Dagger-moth — Acronycta lepus-culina. 



caterpillar of this moth is often very destructive to poplar trees, and more 



especially to the foliage of the cottonwood 

 tree in the west. It is, when full grown, 

 an inch and a half or more in length, with 

 V_ a black head and its body clothed with 



( ^^ long) soft, yellow hairs, from amongst 



\ ' ? / /: - ". which arise along the back five long pen- 



cils of black hairs. When at rest it curls 

 itself up on the leaf, as shown in Fig. 17 



'\.^ 



*l 



Fig. 17. Fig. 18. 



When full grown the caterpillar spins a pale yellow cocoon of silk, interwoven with 

 its own hairs, hidden in some sheltered spot, and there, changes to a dark brown crysalis, 

 from which, in due time, the moth appears. 



The perfect insect measures, when its wings are expanded, about an inch and three- 

 quarters across. (See Fig. 18). Its wings are grey, varied with dark brown dots and 

 spots and shadings. Near the hinder angle of the front wings is a rather conspicuous spot, 

 not very distinctly shown in the figure, resembling the Greek letter psi placed sidewise. 

 There are two broods of this insect during the year ; the moths of the first appear in 

 June, deposit eggs which produce larvse that reach their full growth, pass the chrysalis 



