152 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



lie 



felt none: and asked my friend why 

 il ;i >|i( cies ot vine for shelter, orna- 

 ment. ;iinl u-e. w hirli |iroduced uo foliage. He 

 rebnked nn ii;ncir;inre pretty sharply, and told 

 me that a lew \ve<'k< lielme'. llie tree was cov- 

 ered with le;i\i'-. : lull, lor some inexplicable rea- 

 son, they hail all (li>appeareil--ealen, lie guessed, 

 by soniothiny. He "-nessed right, Tliere were 

 at least a hundred of the larvas of A. octomacu- 

 kita, the rear guard of a mighty host, wander- 

 ing about the branches, apparently for the pur- 

 pose of making snre that no little particle of a 

 leaf was left undevoured. Pretty little things 

 they were, with hariuoniously blended coloi's of 

 black, yellow and blue, but so terribly destruc- 

 tive! I had the curiosity to walk through all 

 the streets to the east of Third avenue, as low 

 as Tweiity-tliiid street, and every vine was in 

 the same preiliraiiient. Ifgrape leaves, instead 

 of tig leave-, hail been in request for making 

 aprons, and one .!////</(( had been in existence 

 at the time, 1 doubt if in the whole Garden of 

 Eden enough material would liave been found 

 to make a garment of decent size. The destruc- 

 tion of the crop for 1868 was complete. 



"This was bad. But it was not half so bad 

 as the helpless ignorance which possessed nearly 

 all of the unfortunate owners of vines. Scarcely 

 one that I conversed with had the remotest idea 

 of the cause of the disaster, and when I explained 

 that it was the caterpillar of a beautiful little 

 black moth, with eight whitish yellow spots ou 

 its wings, whiih had eaten up the foliage, my 

 assertion was received with such a smile of 

 incredulity, as convinced me that there is no 

 use in trying to humbug such very sharp fellows 

 as are the New York grape-growe?'S. 



"It is a little remarkable, however, that the 

 destruction was conflued to the eastern part ol 

 the eitv, T -aw several luxuriant vines ou the 

 western -ide : and across the river at Hoboken, 

 and at Ihnl-ou ( 'ity, not a trace of A. odoma- 

 ciila/ii was (liM'eruible. 



" The insect, then, is very local in its habits, 

 and it is a day-flyer; and, from these facts, I 

 infer that its ravages may be very materially 

 checked. A little poisoned molasses, exposed 

 in the neighborhood of the vine, would operate 

 on the perfect insect; while a good syringing 

 witli soft soap and water, would bring dowu 

 the caterpillars etfoctually." 



The Be.\utiful Wood Nymph — {Eudryas 

 iji-ata, Fabr,)— Here is another moth (Fig. 101), 



[t-iS-. 101 ] 



Colors— Lnura, brown iiiitl olivu-gVL-cn. 



surpassing in real beauty, thougli not iu high 

 contrast, the species just descril cd. The front 

 wings are milk-white, broadl .• bordered and 



marked, as in the figure, with rusty-brown, the 

 band on the outer margin being shaded on the 

 inner side with olive-green, and marked towards 

 the edge with a slender wavy white line: under 

 surface yellow, with two dusky spots near the 

 middle. The hind wings are nankin-yellow, 

 with a deep brown border, which does not 

 extend to the outer angje, and wliich also con- 

 tains a wavy white line: under surface yellow, 

 with a single black spot. 



Surely these two moths are as unlike in general 

 appearance as two moths well can be; and yet 

 their caterpillars bear such a close resemblance 

 to each other, and both feed upon the Grape- 

 vine. The larva of the Beautiful "Wood Nymph 

 is, iu fact, so very similar to that of the Eight- 

 spotted Forester, that it is entirely unnecessary 

 to figure it. It differs more especially from 

 that species by invariably lacking the white 

 patches along the sides; the hairs arising from 

 the black spots are less conspicuous, while the 

 hump on the eleventh segment is somewhat 

 more prominent. The light parts of the body 

 have really a slight bluish tint, and in specimens 

 which we have found, we have only noticed six 

 transverse black stripes to each segment. Tliis 

 larva, when at rest, depresses the head and raises 

 the tliird and fourth segments, Sphinx-fashion. 

 It is found ou the vines in this latitude as early 

 as May and as late as September, and it devours 

 all portions of the leaf, even to the midrid. It 

 desceuds to the ground, aud, without making 

 any cocoon, transforms to a chrysalis, which is 

 dark colored, rough, with tlie tip of the abdomen 

 obtusely conical, ending in four tubercles, the 

 pair above, long and truncate, those below broad 

 aud short (Packard). Some of them give out 

 the moth the same summer, but most of them 

 pass the winter and do not issue as moths till 

 the following spring. 



The Pe.^ri, Wood Nymph — {Eudryas unio, 

 Iliibner) . — This is another pretty little moth, so 



[Fig. 102. 



Colors— (n and b) ijale-bluc-, bliieli and orange. 



closely allied to, and so much resembling the 

 preceding species, that it is not necessary to 

 jn-oduce its picture. It is a smaller species, aud 

 ditt'ers from the Beautiful "Wood Nymph in hav- 

 ing the outer border of tlie front wings paler 

 and of a tawny color, with the inner edge wavy 

 instead of straight; aud in that of the hind 



