282 



A/V ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



Fig. 310. 



The moth is dull ochre-yellow in color, more or less clouded 

 with black in the middle of the wings, on each of which there 



is a transparent eye-like spot, divided 

 transversely by a slender line and en- 

 circled by yellow and black rings. 

 Before and adjoining this spot in the 

 hind wings is a large blue patch 

 shading into black. 



With a very similar caterpillar and 

 cocoon, the luna moth, Adias luna, 

 is entirely different from the poly- 

 phemus. It is of an even, bluish-green 

 color, sometimes verging into yellow- 

 ish, with a little eye-like spot on all 

 wings, the anterior border of the fore- 

 wings margined with scarlet, while the 

 hind wings are each furnished with a 

 long tail. 



When these caterpillars are noticed 

 on a cultivated plant they can be 

 easily picked off and destroyed, but 

 as a rule their natural enemies serve 

 to keep them reduced to compara- 

 tively small numbers. These Ameri- 

 can species produce a much greater 

 quantity of silk, of a much stouter 

 texture than the Chinese silk-worm 

 proper ; but, unlike it, their thread 

 cannot be reeled. It is this that makes 

 it impossible to use our species suc- 

 cessfully for the production of a cheap 

 and strong silken fabric. 



We sometimes find on corn, clover, 

 apple, and other plants or trees a 

 green caterpillar, with a brown stripe edged with white on each 

 side of the body, covered also with little processes, from which 

 arise clusters of prickly spines. These have urticating proper- 

 ties, so that if the larvae are carelessly handled a certain amount of 

 irritation may arise, though much less than is the case with the 



Cocoon of the cecropia moth. 



