326 PROTKCTION AGAINST INSECTS. 



attacking one-year-old plants of Scots pine and beech. 

 Except during hard weather in the winter its attack lasts from 

 August to April. Seedlings are bitten off below the cotyledons, 

 and one-year-old plants gnawed about the collum, so that they 

 frequently die. In 1864 this insect proved very destructive 

 in Silesia. In 1880, it destroyed spruce, Scots pine and 

 beech near Stralsund. It is said to destroy wheat in Russia. 

 The protective measures are the same as for the previous 

 species. 



Family V. — Geometridae (Loopers). 

 Description of Family. 



Antennae of the imago either filiform or setaceous, with a 

 thickened basal joint, not unfrequently pectinate in 3 ; ocelli 

 absent ; proboscis short ; wings large, broad and delicate, 

 usually lying more or less level in repose, sometimes sloping ; 

 frenulum always present. Bodies slim, resembling those of 

 butterflies. Flight usually at dusk, or by night ; a few species 

 fly in sunshine. Caterpillars bare, or only slightly hairy, with 

 10 (rarely 12) feet; they move about by loopin(i, owing to the 

 absence of the first 3 or 2 pairs of sucker feet ; hence their 

 name, loopers or span-icorms. 



Pupae long, with a short pointed tail, bright brown, lying 

 usually without cocoon under grass, moss, or in the soil. 



The caterpillars feed on needles, leaves, buds, etc., and a few 

 species are injurious to forests. 



1. (icoinciia ])iiii(tii(i, L. {Ihtrdcrcd-irhilc or Viiir LoojitT-Motli). 

 a. lipscriplidii. 

 .!/(//// with a wing-expanse of 35 mm. 3 bright yellow, with 

 a sharply-delined area at the tip of the fore-wings and the 

 margins of both pairs black-brown, hind-wings with two trans- 

 verse dark bands ; antennae bipectinate. ? reddish-brown, 

 the tip of the fore-wings, borders, and 1 or 2 transverse bands 

 on both wings dark brown ; antennae setaceous. In both sexes 

 the under-side of the wings is brownish, with dark lines and 

 numerous spots, and a broad light-yellow band across the 

 middle of the hinder pair. 



