394 
The Moths and Butterflies 
or two spots near the middle also being darker; the hind wings are pale 
yellow and not patterned. The species common on walnuts and hickories is 
Datana angusii , with fore wings varying from chocolate to deep smoky 
brown, with transverse lines like those of ministra; the hind wings are 
Fig. 564.—Larva of Heterocampa guttivitta. (After Packard; natural size.) 
paler brown. The caterpillars are black, with dirty-white hairs and with 
three equidistant, very narrow, pale-yellow or whitish stripes on each side 
and three yellow stripes on the under side; when full grown it is a little more 
than 2 inches long. 
Another conspicuous Notodontid larva occurring on apple-trees is a 
greenish-yellow black-striped caterpillar with a coral-red head and promi¬ 
nent hump on the back of the fourth body-ring. This is the larva (Fig. 562) 
of the red-humped caterpillar-moth, (Edemasia concinna (Fig. 561), a 
darkish-brown moth expanding about ij inches, the fore wings having a 
darker brown spot near the middle, a spot near each angle, and several 
longitudinal streaks along the hinder margin. 
The puss-moths, Cerura, are readily distinguishable by their characteristic 
black and white wings, white being the ground color, with two broad, not 
sharply defined blackish bars across the fore wing, one across the disk, the 
other, often incomplete posteriorly, across the apex. Along the outer margin 
of each wing there is a row of distinct small black points. The larvae (Fig. 
793) of Cerura are extraordinary creatures: short, thick, naked body, tapering 
behind to a kind of forked tail which is held up at an angle with the rest 
of the body. This tail, which is an organ of defence, consists of two tubes, 
within each of which is concealed a long orange-colored extensile thread 
which can be thrust out and drawn in at will. When disturbed, the puss- 
moth caterpillar thrusts out these vivid tails, waving them threateningly, 
at the same time giving off a strong odor. It also telescopes its head and 
front two thoracic segments into the large, humped, third segment, which is 
so shaped and marked as to suggest some formidable large-eyed creature 
quite unlike a soft-bodied toothsome caterpillar. With little doubt this 
elaborate terrifying but actually harmless equipment avails to frighten off 
many of Cerura’s enemies. The larva of a common puss-moth species 
feeds on wild cherry. When ready to pupate the caterpillars gnaw out a 
shallow cavity or depression in the wood which they lie in and over which 
they spin an oval silken net mixed with particles of wood, which makes it 
almost indistinguishable from the rest of the wood surface. These moths 
