The Moths and Butterflies 



393 



reddish black with conspicuous yellow longitudinal stripes, each caterpillar 



curiously jerking its body or resting quietly with both head and body tip 



held up nearly at right angles to the middle part with its four pairs of clinging 



prop-legs. These are Datana larvae, which 



have come down from their feeding on the 



leaves of the tree to moult. The jerking 



frightens away in some measure the numerous 



parasitic Tachina flies which are always 



ready to attend on a gathering of this sort 



and lay a few eggs where they will do the 



Tachina species the most good, that is, on 



the body of these plump caterpillars, so 



that the hatching Tachina grub can burrow into this well-nourished body 



and feed on its living tissues. When feeding in the tree-tops, too, the Datana 



FIG. 561. The red-humped cater- 

 pillar-moth, (Edemasia eximia* 

 (After Packard; natural size.) 



FIG. 562. Larva of red-humped caterpillar-moth, (Edemasia eximia. (After Packard; 



natural size.) 



caterpillars keep closely together, forming rows or files of voracious feeders 

 arranged neatly across each attacked leaf. The common species infesting 

 the apple is Datana ministra, and the larvae have a distinguishing dull orange 



spot on the back of the first body-ring 

 behind the head. The eggs, which are 

 white and spherical, are laid, from 70 to 

 100 by each female, on the leaves, all 

 cemented well together in neat patches. 

 When the larvae are full grown they 

 descend from the tree, burrow into the 

 soil for two or three inches, and change 

 to naked brown chrysalids, which last 

 over winter, the moths emerging in the following summer. The moth, 

 expanding i inches, is reddish or yellowish brown, with the fore wings 

 crossed by from three to five darker brown lines, the outer margin and one 



FIG. 563. Heterocampa guttivitta. 

 (After Packard; natural size ) 



