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.”

This will tend to bear out my contention that scientific works are not the help they should be to the Nature Lover.  Heaven save me from starting to locate Catocala moths, eggs, caterpillars or pupae on the strength of this information.  I might find moths by accident; nothing on the subject of eggs; neither colour of body, characteristics nor food, to help identify caterpillars; for the statement, ‘it feeds on trees,’ cannot be considered exactly illuminating when we remember the world full of trees on which caterpillars are feeding; and should one search for cocoon encased pupae among the leaves and bark of tree-tops or earth?

The most reliable information I have had, concerning these moths of which I know least, comes from Professor Rowley.  He is the only lepidopterist of four to whom I applied, who could tell me any of the things I am interested in knowing.  He writes in substance:  “The Bride and Sweetheart are common northern species, as are most of the other members of the group.  The Amatrix, with its red wings, is called the Sweetheart because amor means love, and red is love’s own colour.  The caterpillar feeds on willow.  The Catocala of the yellow “after-wings” is commonly called the Bride, because Neogama, its scientific name, means recently wedded.  Its caterpillar feeds on walnut leaves.

“If you will examine the under side of the body of a Catocala moth you will find near the junction of the thorax and abdomen on either side, large open organs reminding one of the ears of a grasshopper, which are on the sides of the first abdominal segment.  Examine the bodies of Sphinges and other moths for these same openings.  They appear to be ears.  Catocala moths feed on juices, and live most of the summer season.  Numbers of them have been found sipping sap at a tree freshly cut and you know we take them at night with bait.

“New Orleans sugar and cider or sugar and stale beer are the usual baits.  This ’concoction’is put on the bodies of trees with a brush, between eight and ten o’clock at night.  During good Catocala years, great numbers of these moths may be taken as they feed at the sweet syrup.  So it is proved that their food is sap, honeydew, and other sugary liquids.  Mr. George Dodge assures me that he has taken Catocala abbreviatella at milk-weed blooms about eight o’clock of early July evenings.  Other species also feed on flowers.”