The Moths and Butterflies 401 



tapering towards both ends. The larvae of Catocala ultronia (Fig. 581) 

 feed on plum-tree leaves; they are about ij inches long, grayish brown, 

 with two or four small reddish tubercles on each body-segment, a small 

 fleshy horn on the back of the ninth segment and on the back of the twelfth 

 segment a low fleshy ridge tinted behind with reddish brown. It descends 

 to the ground when ready to pupate, making a flimsy cocoon of silk under 

 a dead leaf or chip. The pupa inside the cocoon is covered with a bluish 

 flour-like dust or "bloom." The moth has the forewings rich amber with 

 a broad indefinite ashy band along the middle and several brown and 



FIG. 581. The plum-tree Catocala, Catocala ultronia, moth and larva. 

 (After Lugger; natural size.) 



white transverse lines; the hind wings are deep red with a wide black 

 band along the outer margin and a narrower one across the middle. The 

 eggs are laid in cracks of the bark in summer. Catocala grynea (Fig. 580), 

 with grayish brown forewings marked with zigzag lines of rich brown and 

 gray short dark-brown streaks on the front margin and with hind wings 

 reddish yellow crossed by two wavy black bands, is called the apple-tree 

 Catocala, because the ashen-brown caterpillar feeds on apple-leaves. The 

 two front pairs of abdominal prop-legs of all the Catocala caterpillars are 

 much smaller than the hinder two pairs, hence the caterpillar has a sort of 

 looping gait like that of the Geometrid larvae, the inchworms. Catocala 

 relicta has the fore wings grayish white with several indefinite transverse 

 black bands, and the hind wings black with one curving white band. 

 Catocala epione has blackish-brown fore wings with wavy narrow black and 

 lighter brown transverse lines with black hind wings narrowly margined 

 with white. 



The largest and most interesting Noctuid, and indeed one of the largest 

 of all the moths, is the curious rare species Erebus odora, called the black 

 witch; it expands 6 inches and has both wings blackish brown with many 



