LEPIDOPTERA. 321 



The Salt-marsh Caterpillar, Estigmene acrcea (Es-tig-me'ne 

 a-crae'a). The popular name of this insect was given to it 

 by Harris, and was suggested by the fact that the salt- 

 marsh meadows about Boston were overrun and laid waste 

 in his time by swarms of the larvae. But the name is mis- 

 leading, as the species is widely distributed throughout the 

 United States. The moth 

 (Fig. 393) is white, marked 

 with yellow and black. 

 There are many black dots 

 on the wings, a row of 

 black spots on the back of 

 the abdomen, another row 

 on the venter, and two rows on each side. The sexes differ 

 greatly in the ground-color of the wings ; in the female, this 

 is white throughout ; in the male, only the upper surface of 

 the fore wings is white, the lower surface of the fore wings 

 and the hind wings above and below being yellow. The num- 

 ber and size of the Black spots on the wings vary greatly. 

 There are usually more submarginal spots on the hind 

 wings than represented in our figure. 



The Fall Web-\vorm, Hyphantria cunea (Hy-phan'tri-a 

 cu'ne-a). A very common sight in autumn in all parts of 

 our country is large ugly webs enclosing branches of fruit or 

 forest trees. These webs are especially common on apple 

 and on ash. Each web is the residence of a colony of 

 larvae which have hatched from a cluster of eggs, laid on a 

 leaf by a snow-white moth. There is a variety of this 

 moth in which the fore wings are thickly studded with dark 

 brown spots. Every gradation exists between this form 

 and those that are spotless. The species winters in the 

 pupa state, and the moths emerge during May or June. 

 The webs made by this insect should not be confounded 

 with those made by the Apple-tree Tent-caterpillar. The 

 webs of the Fall Web-worm are made in the autumn, and 



