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Rosy Maple-moth

Plate VIII — Rosy Maple-moth is Fig. 11
Plate VIII — Rosy Maple-moth is Fig. 11

The larva of this beautiful moth feeds commonly upon the silver-maple, which in many of our western cities has been extensively planted as a shade-tree. The depredations it commits upon the foliage have subjected it to the indignation of arboriculturists. It was formerly very common in the city of Pittsburgh, but for many years past it has almost entirely disappeared, so that it is now regarded as a rather rare insect by local collectors. The disappearance of the moth is due no doubt to the combined influence of the electric lights, which annually destroy millions of insects, which are attracted to them, and to gas-wells, and furnaces, which lick up in their constantly burning flames other millions of insects. Perhaps the English sparrow has also had a part in the work of extermination. In Kansas the insect is very common. I recently saw in the city of Atchison numerous maples, which had almost been stripped of their leaves by these larvae. The range of the insect is practically the same as that of the other species of the genus.