400 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



Fig. 21. — Scales on the 

 wing of a butterfly, 

 Papilio sp., 90 TIMES 

 NAT. SIZE. 



a variety of what may be called in English the " purblind hawk- 

 moth." It is of a reddish brown color, with the hind wings banded 

 with a deep orange. Like many other Sphingidae it feeds upon the 

 nectar of flowers, about which it hovers like a humming bird, and 

 thrusting its long proboscis far down into their corolla tubes. Among 

 the day-flying wasp-moths are the Syntomeida ipomoeae Harris, 



which frequents morning-glories, a handsome 

 species with orange-and-black banded abdo- 

 men and black wings spotted with white (pi. 

 44, fig. 5) ; and the closely allied polka-dot 

 wasp-moth, Syntomeida epilals Walker (pi. 

 -44, fig. 4), with the abdomen tipped with 

 bright orange-red and with black wings and 

 thorax spotted with white. Another wasp- 

 moth of the park is the little Didasys belae 

 Grote (pi. 47, fig. 4), with orange-tufted 

 abdomen and transparent windows in its 

 dainty wings. This exquisite insect is essen- 

 tially Floridian, and is the only species referred to the genus Didasys. 

 Of much wider distribution is the beautiful little tiger moth, most 

 appropriately named by Linnseus Uthetheisa bella (pi. 47, fig. 5). 

 It has rose-colored hind wings bordered with black and orange red 

 fore wings crossed by white bands dotted with black. Another in- 

 teresting moth, belonging to the Noctuidae, which fly by night, is 

 Xanthopastis timais Cramer (pi. 45, figs. 1 and 2), the fore wings of 

 which are a delicate rose color mottled with 

 black and yellow, the hind wings of a silky 

 mouse color, the thorax densely covered with 

 erect black fur, the hairs of which as seen under 

 the lens terminate in minute white club-shaped 

 tips, and the abdomen clothed with black hairs. 

 Its gaily banded larvae, according to Doctor 

 Dyar, feed upon " a species of lily." Specimens 

 were collected by Mr. Thomas E. Snyder on 

 Paradise Key where the adult insects have the 

 peculiar habit of resting during the daytime 

 on the trunks of royal palms, usually high above 

 the tops of the other trees of the hammock. 

 They are most abundant below the bushy fruiting spadices of the 

 palms, and from a distance look like dark specks against the smooth, 

 whitish, columnar trunks. * 



Last of all must be mentioned little " log-cabin worm," Oiketicws 

 abboti Grote, which constructs a case of sticks like a miniature crib 

 (fig. 22). It is an obscurely colored little moth, related to our com- 



Fig. 22. — Case of log 

 cabin moth, Oiketicus 

 dbbottii, in which the 

 wingless female 

 spends her entire 

 life. Half. nat. size. 



