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
5
