THE INSECT WORLD. 



279 



lighter in color, the white spot is much smaller, and the wings 

 are not in the least transparent, but irrorated with darker, small 

 spots, which give them a powdered appearance. 



On maples, especially in the more southern States, we often 

 find a smaller caterpillar, which is green, with black stripes, and 

 marked with little red dots. The resulting moth is known as 

 the ' ' rosy Dryocampa, ' ' and has the fore-wings rose colored, 



Fig. 307. 



Dryocampa rubicunda. — a, its larva ; b, its pupa ; c, female moth : the rosy 

 Dry 0 camp a. 



crossed by a broad pale-yellow band, while the hind wings are 

 pale yellow, with a short rosy band behind the middle. It is 

 rarely abundant enough to need attention, but when it does, the 

 external feeding habit indicates the remedy at once. 



Next we reach the series of species that are silk-spinners par 

 excellence in the caterpillar state. They are known in a general 

 way as bombycids from the term Bo?nbyx, which was for a long 

 time appHed to the "silk- worm." Among the largest of our 

 Lepidoptera are the species of Attacus, which expand from four 

 to eight inches, and are allied to the giants of the tropical region, 

 which have a spread of wing of sometimes fully twelve inches. 

 None of our species are ever numerous enough to be really 

 troublesome, and they are interesting rather from the habits of 

 the caterpillars, which, before changing to pupae, spin a very 



