182 CATERPILLARS AND THEIR MOTHS 



lines, with a marked discal dot, an apical brown spot 

 edged with a white crescent, and two or three brown 

 patches. The hind wings are rose-pink, with a putty- 

 colored border, a double blue eye-spot encircled with 

 black, and a brown patch at the anal angle. The 

 abdomen is gray, with a deep brown tip ; the legs are 

 gray and brown, the palpi brown. The antennae are 

 almost white above, brown beneath, pectinate in the 

 male and simple in the female. 



The under side of the fore wings has a rose-colored 

 patch, is browner than the upper side, and is crossed 

 by brown and white wavy lines. The under side of 

 the hind wings is browner still, crossed by wavy lines, 

 and has a white dash. The moths vary much in the 

 shades of coloring, but are never as brown as exccecatus. 

 When first emerged they are sometimes almost violet, 

 but grow grayer. The female is paler and less dis- 

 tinctly marked than the male. They fly in the evening 

 and may be caught at light, or on white walls which 

 catch distant light. We have taken them in hotel 

 corridors between ten and eleven o'clock, and have 

 found them, newly emerged, on tree-trunks in the 

 morning. 



The caterpillars may be found on willow, poplar, 

 spiraea, hazel, birch, ash, oak, wild-cherry, apple, plum, 

 elm, ironwood and hornbeam, according to the books. 

 Poplar, spiraea, and white birch have been our best 

 food-plants for them. 



The caterpillars are very clean, are not delicate, and 

 have no diseases as far as we know. Out of doors 

 they are very often victims of parasitic flies, and there 

 they burrow in the ground to pupate. 



