Excerpt from Geometroid Caterpillars of Northeastern and Appalachian ForestsCaterpillars have long been a favorite among children - each year tens of thousands of these insects are brought into classrooms and nature centers, or are carried home to parents. With this in mind, we designed this publication so that it would be understandable and useful to educators, students, and the general public, while at the same time serving the needs of forest managers, conservation biologists, and professional entomologists.The literature on North America's geometroid fauna is mostly scattered and generally inaccessible to the nonspecialist. For all but the well - studied species, we wrestled with some uncertainty - about the taxonomy, about what characters would prove diagnostic, and especially about the natural histories of the species included in this manual. Given these uncertainties, this guide must be viewed as a first effort - the taxonomy and our diagnoses will change as these insects become better known. Much remains to be learned about the host ranges and phenologies of all but the most common species. Photographic studies capturing variation, developmental changes, and natural behaviors would make valuable contributions to the knowledge of these important insects. Indeed, much remains to be discovered by those who take the time to observe these and other small creatures that make their homes in forests.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.