THE BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



I- 95 



FIG. 304. Antlered maple worms (Hetero- 



campa gutivitta), showing variation in 



color markings. (Slightly enlarged) 



our commonest species feed 

 on shade and forest trees, but 

 rarely do widespread damage. 

 An exception to this is the case 

 of the antlered maple worm 

 (Heterocampa gutivitta), which 

 stripped thousands of acres of 

 maple and beech along the 

 mountain sides from central 

 Maine southwest to the Adiron- 

 dacks in the summers of .1908 

 and 1909. These caterpillars 

 are bright green with a saddle- 

 shaped mark of purple, and when just hatched from the eggs have 

 small, branched antlers just back of 

 the head. The eggs of this family 

 are laid on the foliage of the food 

 plant, and the larvae descend to the 

 ground to pupate, the pupae usually 

 remaining in the soil over winter. 



The measuring-worms (family 

 Geometridae) are the caterpillars of a 

 large family ; they have but one or 

 two pairs of abdominal prolegs, so 



that as the middle of the body is FIG. 305. Red-humped oak eater- 

 unsupported they are unable to walk 

 like ordinary caterpillars, but loop 

 along in a characteristic fashion, which has given them the com- 

 mon name of " inch-worms " or 

 " measuring wormsV' Many of 

 them will stand with the body 

 stretched out stiff and motion- 

 less, so that they are readily 

 mistaken for broken twigs and 

 are probably passed over by 

 birds seeking food. Although 



pillars (Symmerista albifrons] on 

 oak leaf. (Reduced) 



FIG. 306. Moth of the red-humped 

 oak caterpillar 



(After Weed) 



there are no absolutely distinc- 

 tive characters by which the 



