Friday's Foto

This Hawaiian Beet Webworm is neither exotic nor Hawaiian. Despite being common and widespread, I'd never noticed them. Also known as the Spinach Moth, I spotted this individual while photographing butterflies in Green-Wood Cemetery. They may be pretty, but farmers consider them an agricultural pest. While searching for information on this moth I stumbled on "Manual of Vegetable-Garden Insects", by Cyrus Richard Crosby and Mortimer Demarest Leonard (pub. 1918). The authors recommended method of control is spraying "arsenate of lead (paste), 2 pounds in 50 gallons of water." Yum, makes for some tasty, nutritious veggies.