Professional
lepidopterists dismiss them with few words. One would-be authority
disposes of the species with half a dozen lines. You can find at
least a hundred Catocala reproduced from museum specimens and their
habitat given, in the Holland "Moth Book", but I fail to learn what
I most desire to know: what these moths feed on; how late they
live; how their eggs appear; where they are deposited;
which is their caterpillar; what does it eat; and where and how
does it pupate.
Packard, in his "Guide to the Study of Insects", offers in
substance this much help upon the subject: "The genus is
beautiful, the species numerous, of large size, often three-inch
expansion, and in repose form a flat roof. The larva is elongate,
slender, flattened beneath and spotted with black, attenuated at
each end, with fleshy filaments on the sides above the legs, while
the head is flattened and rather forked above. It feeds on trees
and rests attached to the trunks. The pupa is covered with a bluish
efflorescence, enclosed in a slight cocoon of silk, spun amongst
leaves or bark.
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