Page:The day butterflies and duskflyers of New England, how to find and know them (IA daybutterfliesdu00knob).pdf/7

 which are coppery-brown species, having a slight tail to the hinder wings, are the smallest of butterflies. The differThe family of skippers, Hesperians, are rather small, thickent species may be collected from May to October. bodied

The

butterflies,

caterpillars,

having the antennae hooked

Hawk-moths, Sphingida, maxilla.

The

They

at the

end

like a

shepherd's crook.

The

colors are

brown and yellow.

which are green, have large heads. fly

their long sucking tubes or only at dusk, frequenting flowers, into which they insert

are very stout bodied,

and have thick narrow wings, making them rapid

larvae are large, green, fleshy caterpillars,

in flight

and hard

to capture.

The humming-bird moths

having a terminal horn-like appendage.

are

the sunshine, darting into flowers, or suspending themselves above them like humming-birds, ^fgcriadtc, small, clear-winged insects, with steel-blue bodies, in the larval state are The Bombyridce, or spinners, including the silk-producing ^-E. polistiformis bores into the root of the grape. borers. The common white miller belongs to their are known bodies, small sunken heads, and broad wings.

smaller,

and have transparent wings.

moths, this

by

group



its

larva

They

fly in

large

is

thick and hairy, and

is

silk-producing moths, of which Samia cecropia spread.

The

larvss are

found very is

common

Several of the largest species, true

in gardens.

an example, measure

from

six inches

tip

Among

green caterpillars, with scattering tufts of short hairs.

to tip

when

the wings are

the owlet moths, or Noctuida,

As the insects are attracted to the light, night is the best time to take them. the wings are small and narrow. " The larvae are The noxious cut-worms are the larvae of the tapering, and are striped and barred in different ways. Agrotis moths,

some

of which

concealed during the day

may be found

time in

in fields in

chinks of stone walls

autumn upon flowers while others fly only at night, and lie and like places. The Catocalas have rather broader wings,

the hinder ones being beautifully striped with bands of red, yellow, or black.

guished by their slender bodies and feathered antenna.

Many

of the species

The

larvae are

known

The

Geometridce are easily distin-

as span worms, measuring worms, etc.

have angulated wings, generally of some shade of yellow, crossed with 5

faint lines of darker