224 BULLETIN NO. 62. 



THE WHITE LINED MORNING SPHINX. 



Dcilcphila Lineata Fab. 



From all quarters of the state this well known and beautiful 

 moth was brought prominently to the attention of this office during 

 the summer of 1905, and on the Experiment farm it was very abund- 

 ant, the writer having found many caterpillars on various weeds 

 on waste places. On one patch of weeds the wn^iter stood and from 

 one position counted nine caterpillars of various sizes, many of 

 them nearly full grown. 



This species is given place in this bulletin not because it has 

 been very destructive to crops, but b£cause of the prominence with 

 which it came before the people and because it caused some ap- 

 prehension in the Yellowstone Valley as a pest of alfalfa. It has 

 been reported in a number of instances that large numebrs of these 

 caterpillars could be seen in alfalfa fields, and because of their large 

 size they are believed to be a serious pest. We believe, however, 

 that their presence in alfalfa and in other crops of value may be 

 usually traced to the presence of some of its favorite food plants 

 among weeds close at hand which have become exhausted, thereby 

 leaving the caterpillars without food. It is a well known fact that 

 this insect, while favoring a fairly restricted numebr of plants, will, 

 when they are exhausted, feed on many others. Among these 

 other plants it occasionally attacks a considerable number of value 

 to man, though it seldom becomes very injurious. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The striped morning spinx reaches throughout the United 

 States and is not liable to be confused with any other species, ex- 

 cepting, possibly, the Dark Veined Morning Spinx {Deilephila galii) 

 which, in the adult stage, is rather brighter in color and lacks the 

 diagonal lines across the fore wings and has on the top of the 

 thorax a uniformly brownish color. The Dark A^eined Morning 

 Spinx occurs in Europe and Asia as well as the United States. 



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