Paonias astylus, which may be found on high blueberry in the autumn, and is green splashed with carmine, as are the leaves, while its caudal horn is of the shape and color of the buds of next year's leaves, and is even bifid at the tip as they are. He must have enough sense of beauty to appreciate the often exquisite coloring, and enough self-control to put aside all dislike to crawling things. He must have patience to provide suitable food for his captives day after day, to keep their pupæ through the winter, and perhaps fail to get, after all, the moth from his rarest specimen, and then to begin again the next season, hoping for better luck. For very much is luck even under the best conditions of knowledge and experience. But the luck is often wonderfully good, as when a famous entomologist wrote to me for eggs of a certain sphinx moth, and within a few weeks, as I was walking along a muchtraveled street, I saw projecting from the edge of an upright stone a triangular something which suggested the tip of a moth's wing. On approaching it I found it not only a moth of the desired kind, but a female, and I succeeded in putting it into my pocket tin and then into a cage at home. There it laid eggs galore, and I was able to send scores of them to England, besides rearing many myself and getting the full lifehistory of the species. My being at that place on that day was clear luck, for I had. no reason to expect any moths there. Such an experience is very exciting, and gives fresh hope and energy. PAONIAS MYOPS There is no thrilling struggle to capture a caterpillar, but there is sometimes a desperate search for it when it has quietly curled up and dropped into deep grass at one's first touch on the plant. A caterpillar once found is not likely to get away, as one's largest fish usually does, but it may be found covered with tiny white eggs deposited by a parasitic fly, which means that even if the caterpillar lives long enough to become a pupa it will not emerge as a moth, but will be devoured by the grubs within its body. There is just ATTACUS PROMETHEA one chance for it. If the eggs are recently laid and are not too numerous, a human friend can break or remove them before thegrubs have hatched and eaten their way into the body of their host, who then will be able to live out his allotted life, as far as they are concerned. Like fishing, caterpillar-hunting has its good and bad days, and with no apparent cause for the difference. A dull day is usually better, because seeing is easier than when the sun is in CITHERONIA REGALIS one's eyes, and also because more caterpillars may be found feeding in shade than in sunshine; but some dull days give no specimens. There is a fascination in approaching a shrub or sapling without knowing what it may have in store, and then finding it a treasure-house filled with spoils. I still remember finding on a Vermont hillside, when I was a beginner, a willow which hung full of gifts, like a Christmas-tree. On it my friend and I found the bright green larvæ of Papilio turnus lying on their webs of silk, each on its leaf, their eye spots glaring at us as if they could really see and meant to frighten us away, instead of being mere marks on their bodies. We found long, slender caterpillars of clear golden-green with a bright yellow line on each side-Scoliopteryx libatrix, the "Herald moth." We found one or two caterpillars of Paonias excæcatus, and of Hy perchiria io, whose mossy spines sting like nettles. But the chief treasure was a beautiful caterpillar lying in a curved line on a leaf, so like a white, fluffy feather that for a moment it deceived us. Its long, silky, white hairs were parted on the dorsal line, and drooped over its sides and head-in fact, over both ends. Beneath the hairs the body was of a blue-green color. We found four of these later, but never succeeded in getting the moth or finding any one who could identify the larva, although we feel sure that it was an Acronycta and nearly akin to A. populi. When ready to pupate, its white hairs became very gray, and it burrowed a deep hole in a bit of rotten wood, covered the entrance with a parchment-like web of silk, and never emerged. This was the case with all five. Probably they were stung by parasites and the LAGOA CRISPATA dense hairs prevented our discovering the fact. A wild-cherry tree may have many treasures to offer, from the larvæ of A tacus promethea, very common in the Eastern States, to rare, sphingid caterpillars. Promethea is a very comfortable creature to rear, and a very attractive one. I know that many persons can see no beauty in any crawling thing, but it is there nevertheless. These caterpillars are green beneath and have a whitish bloom, making them seem white above. They have dots of polished blue-black in transverse rows, and near the head four tubercles of coral-red with a black ring at the base of each. Near the other end of the body is one yellow tubercle. When these caterpillars are ready to spin, each selects a leaf, draws the edges somewhat together with silken threads, then covers the stem with silk, and binds it to the twig with a tight band of tough silk. After this it crawls back to the leaf, pulls its edges closer and closer together, and spins a tough cocoon in the tube thus formed. I have often found twenty such cocoons on a wild-cherry tree four feet high, and once I cut a small branch which had forty-seven cocoons dangling from it, each wrapped in its withered leaf. The caterpillars may be found on ash and tulip trees, as well as willow, sassafras, and wild cherry, and they cover the long stems of these leaves in the same way, and bind them to the twig with silk. Attacus angulifera is so closely allied to them that it has been considered only a variety, though it is now held to be a species, and the caterpillars are so similar that the same figure would serve for both. In color angulifera is creamier white and its dots are not raised as much as those of promethea. One difference I have always found-the caterpillars have never spun over the stems and twigs, but have drawn leaves together and spun between them, the cocoons falling with the leaves in autumn instead of hanging on the twigs all winter. The moths differ much in color, and slightly in marks, from prome thea. They are more common in the mid-West than in the East. The wild cherry may also offer the one PROTOPARCE CELEUS horned larvæ of Paonias excæcatus, applegreen in color, roughly granulated, and having yellow oblique lines on each side. Paonias myops may be found there, too, apple-green with horn and obliques, and usually having irregular spots of bright carmine, exactly like the red spots on wild-cherry leaves. Sometimes there are two rows of such spots on each side, sometimes one row, sometimes only two or three, as in this specimen. Sometimes the spots are dull reddish-brown instead of carmine, and once in a while they are wanting altogether. Myops, excæcatus, and geminatus-which lives on poplar, oak, and willow-are of about the same size and shape, and could be distinguished with difficulty if myops lacked the red spots. All the smerinthids burrow in earth to pupate. Poplars are good hunting-ground for caterpillars, as, besides geminatus and excacatus, they may offer Triptogon modesta, which is much less common than these, and some of tre larger spinning caterpillars, Actias luna, Telea polyphemus, Attacus cecropia, as well as several smaller species. One of the greatest surprises lying in wait for the inexperienced caterpillar-hunter may be given him by a walnut, butternut, or hickory tree inhabited by Citheronia regalis. It is brown of various shades, and its long tubercles are rough with black spines. The one photographed was almost full grown. These are less common in the Eastern States, but may be found in New England occasionally. They go into the ground to pupate, as does their near relative, Eacles imperialis, which lives on pine, maple, and some other trees, and is common in the East. It is not as formidable in appearance as regalis, and may be either brown or green. Both are easy to rear and make fine large moths. On the same trees with the formidablelooking regalis may be found pale-green sphingid caterpillars, rough with whitish granulation, and having heads shaped like apple-seeds, the point being uppermost. These caterpillars are Cressonia juglandis, and are more common in the mid-West and in the South than in the East. PROTOPARCE CELEUS Any one who can reach bayberry bushes in August and Sep tember, sometimes in July, may find the furry larvæ of Lagoa crispata, and usually in abundance. These are in shape like a boat upside down, and neither head nor feet are visible to the ordinary observer. When young, the caterpillars are covered with white, downy hairs, but the last molt or two gives them tawny and not quite as fluffy hairs. Whatever their color, these hairs sting like nettles, and it is pleas anter to handle the caterpillars carefully, though the stinging pain lasts but a short time. The caterpillars may be found on the beach plum also. They spin small, compact cocoons, and come out very pretty moths, creamy white with some black lines, and a crinkled look which gives them their specific name. Their next of kin, Lagoa opercularis, is similar, and is found more often in the South on orange and lemon trees. and strong, and need rubber bands on their tins unless the tins are too deep for them to reach bottom and top at the same time. If they can do this, they are pretty sure to push off the cover, crawl out, and then to be met in the hall or on the stairs by that member of the household who most fears or dislikes crawling things. The results of such an encounter are not always pleasant for the caterpillar-hunter, especially if he is a small boy. The nearest relative of these caterpillars lives on sweet potato and convolvulus vines, and is a more Southern species, P. cingulata. All go into the ground to pupate, and the pupa have long tongue CRESSONIA JUGLANDIS There come days when one does not care to go far afield, and then the garden offers chances of partly hidden treasure. The tomato and potato plants may well repay careful inspection, especially early in the morning or towards sunset. Then may be found, from late June till October, the large sphingid caterpillars, Protoparce carolina and P. celeus, which are very similar. These caterpillars are of just the color of the leaves, and may be found most easily by looking for excreta on the ground and then searching the stems above it, or by finding a stem whose top has only bare mid-ribs where leaves were, and tracing the eater by these remnants of his feast. The caterpillars grow very large cases making a loop from the head to the wing-covers, and standing out like the handle of a jug. In the heat of the day these caterpillars crawl down and hide under leaves, or in the ground, at the foot of their food plants. They make great gray moths with black and white marks. Celeus and carolina have orange spots on the abdomen, and cingulata has pink ones. These "great gray moths" are most often seen at garden flowers in the dusk, or bumping their heads against lighted windows. Honeysuckle and the yellow lilies have great attraction for them, and their long tongues enable them to reach the nectar in these deep flower-tubes. |