MOTHS AND BUTTMHFLIES. 445 



caterpillar is said to be of a dull whitish color, with the head, thoracic, and ?nal shields 

 reddish brown, They feed on meal, flour, straw, etc. 



Pantographa Umata, of North America, expands nearly two inches. All the wings 

 are straw-yellow, beautifully and intricately marked with purplish brown. The cater- 

 pillars feed on the leaves of bass-wood, cutting them a little more than half way across 

 the middle, and rolling the outer part of the leaf into a cone, which they close at 

 each end, remaining and feeding within. They are bright green, with pitchy black 

 heads and thoracic shields, and with a few fine short hairs scattered over the surface 

 of their bodies. They closely resemble some of the tortricid caterpillars, both in 

 structure and habits, but the perfect insects are typical pyralids of the first group. 

 Only three species belonging to this genus are at present known. 



Mesogrivphe stramentalis, common both in Europe and America, expands about an 

 inch. The fore wings are straw-yellow, crossed by two curved or angulated brown 

 lines. A brown shade rests on the outer margin, enclosing a small yellow spot, and 

 the veins are marked with brown. The hind wings are very pale yellowish white, 

 with brown terminal and subterminal lines, the latter rather faint. The females lay 

 their flattened, oval, yellowish eggs, which hatch in about ten days, on the leaves of 

 cruciferous plants, in mid-summer, and the caterpillars feed on these leaves for about 

 a mouth, moulting three times before reaching maturity, after which they descend to 

 the ground, spin an oval cocoon either among the leaves or just beneath the surface 

 of the ground, where they remain in this state till the following spring, when they 

 transform to pupae, and the moths emerge in July or August. 



The Geometeid^ or Phal^enidjE form a family of great size, being exceeded in 

 numbers among the Lepidoptera, only by the noctuids and tineids, and probably 

 equalled only by the pyralids and tortricids. They are found widely distributed over 

 the globe, and the caterpillars of many species have proved very destructive to some 

 of our most important vegetable productions. The moths have rather long, slender 

 bodies, the thorax without tufts or crests. Ocelli are present in some species, and 

 absent in others. The antennas are either simple, ciliated, or pectinated. The fore 

 wings are large and triangular; the outer margin, which is either rounded, more or 

 less falcate or angulated, is nearly as long as the hinder margin. The hind wings are 

 ample, though sometimes considerably smaller than the others, and have their outer 

 margins rounded, entire, dentate, or more or less tailed in a few exotic species. In 

 some, the females are wingless, or have only rudimentary wings, which are useless for 

 flight. There are sometimes slight tufts of hair-like scales along the back and sides 

 of the abdomen. 



The caterpillars are slender and naked, usually with two pairs of abdominal legs, 

 though rarely they have three or four pairs. This deficiency causes them to move 

 along with a looping gait, and hence they are often called 'measuring-worms,' from 

 which fact the family name was given them. These caterpillars live on the leaves of 

 plants, with the exception of a few which bore into seeds. The pupae are rather 

 slender, green, or variegated in color, and enclosed in slight silken cocoons or cells in 

 the ground. 



The species of geometrids found in North America are possibly as well known as 

 those of any group of moths, thanks to the able monograph of Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., 

 who has described and figured nearly every species. Our space, however, will allow 

 us to mention but a very few of the forms. 



Our first form is called the lime tree winter moth, Jlybernia tiliaria. It occurs 



