THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
sxC^" 
 
 -" X> ly-^*' 
 
 FRONTISPIECE. 
 
INSECT LIVES 
 
 OR 
 
 BORN IN PRISON 
 
 BY 
 
 JULIA P. BALLARD 
 
 AUTHOB OP "BUILDING STORIES," "SEVEN YEARS FROM TO-NlGHT," 
 
 "A LITTLE LIFE," ETC., ETC. 
 
 CINCINNATI 
 
 ROBERT CLARKE & CO 
 
 1879 
 
COPYRIGHTED 
 ROBERT CLARKE & CO 
 
 1879 
 
( L - -7 7 
 63 
 
 Bvc 
 
 L 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 How shall we interest children? How shall we most interest them? 
 How shall we best interest them ? 
 
 You give to your boy a glass ball. It is clear and beautiful. He can 
 amuse himself with it. How? Not by studying it, but by rolling or 
 catching it. Tell him to put the ball under a glass cover and watch it. 
 Tell him to wait and look again and see what he will find. " Nothing," 
 he says, " but a ball." He is right. Man made it, and all the beauty it 
 will ever have it has now. Give him a microscope. What does he see? 
 A little coarser texture, perhaps a flaw, a bubble of confined air, but only 
 the same glass ball. Go with him to the forest. Pick from an oak branch 
 a plain brown ball. Is this only a ball ? Put it under a glass. Look 
 again and you will find it is more than a ball. It is a home. The doors 
 will soon open and the family disperse. Watch. There goes one in full 
 dress out on an early promenade. With what ease and grace it walks 
 up and down its prison of glass. Another follows. There is a large 
 family for so small a house. Who built it ? Was it cast in a mold by a 
 man? God made it, and all the beauty it has is not seen at first. Take 
 the microscope. No roughness is revealed, no flaw, but exquisite beauty 
 and finish in every part of the house, in every part of each perfect in- 
 mate. Suppose a boy could buy a glass ball that would develop such 
 wonderful secrets. What merchant could supply the market? Aladdin's 
 lamp would be at a discount. 
 
 You give your girl a silk " beechnut-box." Some of them will know 
 
 00 
 
 M345850 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 what I mean : a three-sided hox, made of card-board and covered and 
 lined with silk, such as only grandmothers can probably make now. 
 She looks at it. It seems solid. Press it and it opens. One side has 
 been left without being closed. What can she do with it ? It is better 
 .than a ball. It will hold something. She can use it. But the box itself, 
 what will it come to ? Tell her to put the box under a glass and see what 
 it will get to be. She will laugh and tell you, " only a box." All there 
 is to it she sees at once. Try the microscope. Only a little coarser silk. 
 
 Here is a green "beechnut-box" I have found on a walnut leaf. It is 
 very small no larger than a beechnut and looking much like a green 
 one. Is it a box ? Let us try the microscope. It is embroidered on the 
 sides and back. There are small patterns in diamonds in brown, and 
 drab. While you look it moves. Put it under a glass and watch. Is it a 
 home ? Put a bit of walnut leaf by it. What is that moving just under 
 one of the pointed ends? It is a head. The leaf begins to disappear, 
 the owner of the box, the Limacodes scapha, is taking his breakfast. 
 
 Which will you prefer, the glass ball or the round brown house, 
 the silk box or the curious living thing that has surprised you and 
 holds in reserve a still greater surprise? 
 
 It is with the hope of getting this question answered in favor of liv- 
 ing balls and boxes, of getting the key into the hand and getting the 
 heart ready and anxious to unlock the many sources of beauty and 
 interest which God has placed all about us in nature, that this little 
 volume of "INSECT LIVES" has been written. That we may learn that 
 while " it is the glory of God to conceal a thing," He is not only witling 
 we should search out these hidden wonders, but will himself be glad 
 in our new-found delight in them. 
 
 EASTON, PA., October, 1879. 
 
CONTESTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY... 9 
 
 BORN IN PRISON 21 
 
 II. 
 
 GREEN HOUSE WITH GOLD NAILS 24 
 
 III. 
 
 Two FRONT DOORS 32 
 
 IV. 
 THE EARLY BUTTERFLY 39 
 
 V. 
 THROUGH A GLASS CLEARLY 45 
 
 VI. 
 
 How I CAUGHT A BEAR 54 
 
 VII. 
 
 CRUMPLE-WING 57 
 
 (vii) 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 VIII. 
 UNDER THE CAPE ....................... ................................................. 61 
 
 IX. 
 THE ARCTIAN AND ICHNEUMON ........................................................ 64 
 
 X. 
 THE WHITE ERMINE MOTH ................................. ...... . .................... 66 
 
 XI. 
 A HUNTWIED TO ONE .................................................................... 67 
 
 XII. 
 THE UNFINISHED LIFE OF QUAKER GRAY ......................................... 72 
 
 XIII. 
 AN EARLY CECROPIAN .................................................................. 75 
 
 XIV. 
 THE ROSY DRYOCAMPA .............................. ....... . ......................... 80 
 
 XV. 
 THE SATURMA lo ......................................................................... 85 
 
 XVI. 
 SILVER GRAY..., , 93- 
 
Oh look thou largely with lenient eyes 
 On what so beside thee creeps and clings, 
 
 For the possible glory that underlies 
 
 The passing phase of the meanest things." 
 
 Mrs. Whitney. 
 
 (v) 
 
H 
 
 or n rote on. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 I. "I know you. I know what you have 
 been. I know what you will be." This it is 
 delightful to be able to say to the caterpillar 
 crossing your path slowly, or to the butterfly 
 winging its way in the air before you to 
 look upon the common brown brush-like 
 caterpillar, with black at each end of him 
 
 (9) 
 
1 INTR OD UCTOJR Y. 
 
 and say: "Plod on a little longer, good fellow, and you 
 shall 'be a tiger moth!" or upon the small yellow and 
 white butterfly, and say : " You, a little while ago, were a 
 green caterpillar, making holes for dear life through a cab- 
 bage leaf! " And this may easily be accomplished with the 
 aid of your own eyes and a microscope, and also (as butter- 
 flies and caterpillars do not go flying and crawling about 
 labeled), by the help of authors who have studied and classi- 
 fied them. 
 
 " But how shall we catch the butterflies ? With a net ? " 
 IsTot at all. That may do very well if you care for noth- 
 ing but their present beauty; but if you wish to know the 
 butterfly you had better take an earlier chapter in his life. 
 Of course the first thing would be the egg, but, as these are 
 not so easily found, you can begin with the caterpillar, and 
 in due time you will come round to the egg, and so have the 
 whole at command. The smaller the caterpillar when you 
 get him the better, because he is very fond of changing his 
 coat, and, liking a variety, is apt to put on quite a different 
 one each time. Sometimes the second coat is much gayer 
 than the first, even though that were a coat of many colors. 
 Caterpillars usually change four times before going into a 
 chrysalis state. Some butterfly caterpillars change five times 
 (as the Papilio philenor), though the other Papilios of the 
 Northern United States change but four, and some have but 
 three changes ; so that one who has never noticed them care- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. H 
 
 fully will be much, surprised, in studying them, at the im- 
 mense variety in shape and color, and also the great beauty 
 which many of them display. 
 
 I have seen more elaborate work in design and color, in a 
 surface less than an inch in length, and in width no more 
 than a sixth of an inch, in a small, unnoticed caterpillar, 
 than I have ever seen in as much surface on any flower. 
 And the microscope reveals here often an amazing amount of 
 work and beauty little suspected without its aid. 
 
 "While some caterpillars are hairy, and look like a little 
 traveling clothes brush, others are knobbed, or spiny, like the 
 porcupine, and others quite smooth. Some are handsomely 
 dressed in scarlet and gold, with tufts of various colors 
 grouped upon their bodies ; and, strange as it may seem, 
 some of the gayest and handsomest make the very dullest 
 and homeliest moths. They have always twelve rings, called 
 segments, besides a shelly head, and from ten to sixteen legs. 
 They have a little conical tube or spinneret in the center of 
 the upper lip, from which they spin the silk for their co- 
 coons, or draw the silken thread, which some use instead, 
 to fasten themselves with when changing into chrysalids. 
 The change from one coat to another is something curious, 
 but not much in comparison to the change from the cater- 
 pillar to the butterfly through the chrysalis state. Here the 
 form is entirely altered. The mouth and manner of eating 
 and kind of food are totally different. 
 
12 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 II. "But how can I touch the caterpillars when I wish 
 to get them?" 
 
 Do not touch them at all. Take a little box, and when 
 you see one, with a pencil or stick gently push him into 
 it, and carry him home. Get some plain glass tumblers, the 
 larger the better. You can begin with one or two, but you 
 will soon want a dozen. Put your caterpillar upon a white 
 paper, which you have first placed on an old book, or other 
 firm substance, and cover him with the glass. If you have 
 several kinds at once, it is well to label the glasses. Write 
 " Grape," or "Apple," or " Poplar," upon a slip of paper, and 
 paste it upon the tumbler which covers the caterpillar you 
 found upon the grape, apple, poplar, or other leaf. This 
 will avoid confusion, as they one by one go into chrysalids. 
 You can study each one separately, and you will know, as 
 they come out of the chrysalids (which you have seen them 
 make), just which is the moth of the grape, apple, or what- 
 ever your label indicates should be there. This you would 
 forget more easily than one would suppose. You will thus 
 know, also, at a moment's glance, how to feed them ; as 
 each caterpillar requires to be fed with whatever kind of 
 leaf you found him upon. If upon the grape, give him 
 grape leaves under the grape tumbler, and so on. You 
 will soon begin to respect your caterpillar, and wonder at 
 one thing at least about him, and that is, his power of 
 selection. While there are a few, such as the common salt- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 13 
 
 marsh caterpillar, that will eat several things, as clover, 
 'plantain, and grass, the most of them (at least so far as I 
 have tried them) will condescend to do nothing of the kind. 
 They know what they want, and that is more than can be 
 said of some people. There is one kind of small caterpillar 
 often found on the grape, and also on several other trees, 
 which, although it prefers grape, will eat other leaves ; but 
 there are certain ones peculiar to the grape, and you may 
 try one of these grape caterpillars with every other leaf of 
 the garden, and he will turn away with disgust. Give him 
 a grape leaf, and you are paid for your trouble at once. 
 
 It sometimes happens that you will find a caterpillar far 
 from any tree or plant. Then you can practice with him, 
 and if you can not find out from a book what he is, and 
 what he should have, and fail to suit him with any variety 
 of leaf at your command, you must either let him go, or 
 see him die ! 
 
 III. If you have very large caterpillars, such as the elm, or 
 royal walnut, or that of the Polyphemus moth, it is easy to 
 make a glass box (bound with narrow ribbon, and fastened 
 at the corners), perhaps eight inches square and six or eight 
 high, or a box covered with wire gauze. Such a box is better 
 than the round shades which you could buy, for you can 
 watch the insect much better through them, and see it with- 
 ort distortion. It also admits some air, which they require 
 in order to do well. It is needed for the large moths also, 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 which, under a tumbler, could not expand their wings per- 
 fectly, much less make any use of them. Here you can 
 watch the caterpillar dextrously fasten himself to the side of 
 the glass, and change his coat once, twice, three, or four times, 
 coming out each time fresh and bright, and with a keen ap- 
 petite after the stupid supperless days each change costs him. 
 'You can see him spin his cocoon with such a wonderful skill 
 that you look with amazement at the work; or, if he changes 
 into a smooth chrysalis (as the Asterias butterfly), you can 
 see him fasten the loop around his breast, which attaches him 
 to the glass strongly enough to keep him in one position 
 (either through a long or a short sleep), and at last stand the 
 tug of opening for the escape of the butterfly. Besides this, 
 If they are under glass, they are safe, and you too are safe in 
 your knowledge of them. You know that whatever living 
 thing is found under your glass when the chrysalis opens must 
 have come out of that chrysalis, whether legitimately or not. 
 The first Ichneumon fly I ever examined would have been 
 brushed unceremoniously out of the window for a wasp, had 
 he stolen out from an unguarded chrysalis. But, as he was 
 born in prison, there he was. He came out of that chrysalis, 
 and wasp or what not, he must be studied, and lo ! the curious 
 parasite was brought to light. Revelations of this kind will 
 sometimes be made, which one would be slow to believe pos- 
 sible, but for there being, in this way, no possible room for 
 doubt. I have had two caterpillars, for example, which were 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 15 
 
 just alike, spin each a cocoon exactly alike, each being 
 under a glass of its own and labeled. After a time, 
 on cutting open the cocoon carefully, so as not to injure 
 the chrysalis (which may be easily done), one cocoon was 
 found to contain a perfect chrysalis. The other contained 
 the dead caterpillar and four rather small oval chrysalids. 
 Fiually, the one perfect chrysalis opened for the escape of a 
 moth (Apatela americana) 9 Sind the other four small chrysalids 
 opened, and lo ! six large flies, much resembling the house fly, 
 only more spiny or hairy. There must have been two flies 
 in two of the cocoons, as there were certainly two extra ones 
 under the glass ! 
 
 IV. The immense variety of caterpillars, and the great dif- 
 ference in their habits, and in their new and finished life as 
 moth or butterfly, furnishes constant surprise and pleasure in 
 their study. From egg to imago (which means the perfect 
 insect or butterfly) they are a study which can not fail to 
 excite wonder, and lead us, from admiration of their beauty 
 and skill, to adoration of Him whose work is perfect though 
 invisible, and whose ways, studied never so closely, are still 
 " past finding out." 
 
 To render our researches most effectual and satisfactory, we 
 should not begin with statistics studying how many thou- 
 sands of moths and butterflies there are supposed to be, or 
 how many species of insects have been classified and named. 
 Take " one to begin," as children say, and study it thor- 
 
16 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 oughly. From books such as those of Edwards, Harris, Pack- 
 ard, or Tenney, find the name of your caterpillar, and know, 
 before he changes, what sort of butterfly you are to have ; 
 unless you are fortunate enough to find one not described, and 
 then you can have the honor of naming him .yourself. In 
 this way the more scientific knowledge to be obtained from 
 books you will soon find it impossible to do without. You 
 will find that while it is pleasant to be sent from books to na- 
 ture, it is more pleasant to find out secrets from nature, and 
 let her send you to the books to verify them. 
 
 V. But there are a few things you should know from books 
 before you begin, and one is, that the whole class of butter- 
 flies and moths is called LEPIDOPTERA; and that this class 
 contains only Butterflies, Moths, and Hawk-Moths. Flies, 
 beetles, and other insects come under different classes. 
 
 The Butterflies have delicate thread-like antennae, and these 
 are always knobbed or thickened at the end. They always 
 fly by day, and their caterpillars have sixteen legs six small 
 tapering-jointed ones (which are the true feet) from the first 
 three rings back of the head, and a pair of larger and more 
 fleshy legs to each of the other segments except the fourth, 
 fifth, tenth, and eleventh. 
 
 The Hawk-Moths have long narrow wings, and some of 
 them look very much like little hummingbirds. Their an- 
 tennse are tapering (usually broader in the middle), and 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 17 
 
 never knobbed. They fly rarely during the day, but mostly 
 in the morning and evening twilight. 
 
 The Moths have not narrow wings. Their antennae are 
 not knobbed but usually taper from base to tip, and are not 
 broader in the middle like those of hawk-moths. Some of 
 them are spined and some plumed. They fly at night chiefly. 
 80 you can always tell a butterfly from a moth by the an- 
 tennee, and a hawk-moth from a moth by its wings. 
 
 The eggs are very different in size, shape, and color. Some 
 are clear and round like little crystal beads, and formed on a 
 leaf in a close circle. Sometimes they are in exact rows and 
 of an amber color. Again, like those of the Polyphemus 
 moth, they are chocolate colored, circular, flat, and quite 
 large. The eggs of this moth are shaped like biscuit, and 
 have two white rings around the edge. Some eggs now be- 
 fore me, found to-day in a walk to the woods, and unknown 
 to me, are white, as if made of milk glass. They are on a 
 large forest leaf, and there are just ninety-one of them, and 
 yet I could cover the whole with a thimble. They look like 
 plain u chalk beads," and may be easily counted with the naked 
 eye, but look at them through a microscope, and their ex- 
 quisite beauty appears. They are all precisely alike, 
 having sixteen or eighteen symmetrical grooves 
 diverging from a small circle in the center like this: 
 
 And what is more wonderful than the finish of the egg, is, 
 that the different kinds of eggs are always placed upon that 
 
18 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 kind of leaf, which, when the caterpillar is hatched, he will 
 at once prefer to eat, except, of course, those you may have 
 in your box, or under your tumbler, and then you will know 
 what to feed them. But, as I said, the best way is to begin 
 with the caterpillars, as you will seldom find the eggs in any 
 other way, or have success in raising such, if you should. 
 
 VI. How to kill a moth or butterfly. Butterflies and moths- 
 having so much vitality, it has been a puzzle how to kill 
 them without injuring the delicate texture of their wings and 
 without pain. A sure and easy way is the following : 
 
 Take a glass jar with large mouth and close lid (a candy 
 jar, six inches high and four inches diameter, with glass 
 cover shutting over a rubber band is good), into which put 
 four or five lumps of cyanide of potassium about the size of 
 a hickory-nut. Dissolve enough plaster of Paris in water to 
 cover the cyanide evenly over, forming a hard smooth sur- 
 face. Put the moth into the jar, close the lid and let it re- 
 main five or six hours, after which it can be taken out and 
 mounted. 
 
 Have a board (smoothly planed) with a groove the size, in* 
 length and width, of the body of the moth. Place it upon 
 the board with the body in the groove; spread the wings 
 evenly, and confine them by strips of paper placed across so 
 as to hold the border of each wing. Take off the papers the 
 next day, and with a pin through the thorax, fasten it to the 
 cork gummed upon the box in which you place it. 
 
The velvet nap which on his wings doth lie, 
 The silken down with which his back is dight, 
 His broad outstretched horns, his hairy thighs, 
 His glistening colors and his glorious eyes." 
 
 Spenser. 
 
BORN IN PRISON. 21 
 
 I. 
 
 BORN IN PRISON. 
 
 I AM only a day old ! I wonder if every butterfly comes 
 into the world to find such queer things about him ? I was 
 born in prison. I can see right through my walls; but I 
 ca n't find any door. Right below me (for 1 have climbed 
 up the wall) lies a queer-looking, empty box. It is clear, 
 and a pale green. It is all in one piece, only a little slit in 
 the top. I wonder what came out of it. Close by it there 
 is another green box, long and narrow, but not empty, and 
 no slit in the top. I wonder what is in it. Near it is a 
 smooth, green caterpillar, crawling on the edge of a bit of 
 cabbage-leaf. I 'm afraid that bright light has hurt my eyes. 
 It was just outside of my prison wall, and bright as the sun. 
 The first thing I remember, even before my wings had 
 opened wide, or I was half through stretching my feet ta 
 see if I could use them in climbing, there was a great eye 
 looking at me. Something round was before it, with a han- 
 dle. I suppose it was a quizzing-glass to see what I was 
 about. I heard somebody say, " Oh ! oh ! " twice, just as 
 if they wondered I was here. Then they held the great 
 
22 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 bright light close to the wall, till my eyes were dazzled. 
 I do n't like this prison. It is n't worth while to fly about. 
 It seems as if I ought to have more room. There must 
 be something' inside that green box. It moves ! I saw it 
 half tip over then, all of itself. I believe that caterpillar 
 is afraid of it. He creeps off slowly toward the wall. How 
 smooth and green he is! How his rings move when he 
 crawls ! Now he has gone up the wall. He has stopped 
 near the roof. How he throws his head from side to side! 
 He is growing broader ! He looks just as if he was turn- 
 ing into one of these green boxes! How that box shakes! 
 
 FIG. 3. 
 
 There, I see it begin to open ! There is a slit coming in 
 the back! Something peeps out! A butterfly's head, I 
 declare! Here it comes two long feelers, two short ones! 
 Four wings, two round spots on each of the upper pair, and 
 
BORN IN PRISON. 23 
 
 none on the other two. Dressed just like me. I wonder why 
 it hid away in that box ? 
 
 First Butterfly. "What made you hide in that green 
 box?" 
 
 Second Butterfly. "What box ? I have n't hid anywhere. 
 I don't know what box you mean." 
 
 First Butterfly. " That one. You just crawled out of it. 
 I saw you." 
 
 Second Butterfly." That 's the first I knew of it. There 
 are two boxes, just alike. Both empty. May be you were 
 hid in the other!" 
 
 First Butterfly. " Ho ! There goes up our prison wall ! 
 That's the big hand that held the bright light. How good 
 the air feels ! Now for a chance to try our wings ! Away 
 we go ! " 
 
24 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE GREEN HOUSE WITH GOLD NAILS. 
 
 THERE is a very pretty caterpillar which lives upon the 
 common inilk-weed, or asclepias, which grows by the road- 
 side, with pinkish clusters of flowers in summer, and curious 
 bird-shaped pods in the fall. This caterpillar (whose name 
 is Danais archippus we might call him Archie, for short,) is 
 very pretty, and the butterfly is handsome ; but the crown- 
 ing beauty of all is the chrysalis. It looks like a little green 
 house, put together with gold nails. It is somewhat of the 
 size and shape of a long, delicate pea-green acorn, and has a 
 row of dots half way around what would be the saucer of 
 the acorn, with others about the size of a pin's head on 
 different parts of the chrysalis, and you will say they are 
 not like gold, but are real gold itself. 
 
 The caterpillar, when full-grown, is about two inches 
 long. It is cylindrical, and handsomely marked, when 
 mature, with narrow alternating bands of black, white, and 
 lemon yellow. These bands are not entirely even, and oc- 
 casionally run into each other. On the top of the second 
 ring, or segment, are two slender, black, thread-like horns r 
 
THE GREEN HOUSE WITH GOLD NAILS. 25 
 
 and on a hind ring two more, not quite so long as those 
 
 FIG. 4. 
 
 near the head. You can find it almost any day in July or 
 August, if you look closely, on the under side of the broad 
 ovate-elliptical leaves of the milk-weed. When this cater- 
 pillar first leaves its conical, reticulated egg 
 (which is always found on the under side 
 of the leaf, a miniature hanging-basket, 
 first yellow and then gray, as it devel- 
 opes), it is perfectly cylindrical, and of 
 nearly the same size throughout, and only 
 twelve one-hundredths of an inch in length. 
 In this, its first coat, it is a pale, greenish AN EGG, MAGNIFIED. 
 white, and the horns (front and back) FIG. 5. 
 
 are mere conical points, and it is covered with little 
 black hairs or bristles, from minute warts on the back 
 and sides. The breathing holes, or stigmata, show on 
 each side, marked by a plain, narrow band. In the next 
 coat, which it puts on in a few days, the black stripes 
 appear, and also faint lines of white and yellow, and the 
 
26 
 
 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 horns are longer. The third and last coat (before the final 
 change to the chrysalis) is much the same, except that all 
 the colors are brighter. The horns are shed with the skin, 
 new ones having been formed beneath to take their place. 
 These have been so carefully folded away that at first 
 they scarcely appear; but they are soon developed, or un- 
 curled, and unbend so suddenly as almost to surprise one. 
 When the caterpillar is ready to make its change into 
 the chrysalis, it spins a little tuft or button 
 of silk to the under side of the leaf (or 
 the box-cover, if in prison), into which it 
 fastens its hind legs, by their little hooks, 
 then lets go the hold of its other legs, 
 and hangs, head downward, with the body 
 curved, as in Fig. 6. 
 
 In this position it remains about twenty-four 
 hours when the marvelous change is wrought 
 the coat thrown off and the chrysalis developed. 
 It was the accidental finding of his chrysalis, 
 attached to a spray of wild carrot, that led me to 
 study this particular species. It was a secret to 
 me this beautiful green and gold house. It 
 FlG 7 held something. What, I must know ! Cutting 
 the stem of the carrot, I brought the treasure carefully into 
 the house, covered it with a tumbler, and for a week it re- 
 mained just the same. Then the green began to turn to a 
 
THE GEEEN HOUSE WITH GOLD NAILS. 27 
 
 light purple, and lines began to show through the clear case. 
 The front showed lines like a curtain, parted and folded back 
 each way, like drapery, to the bottom, as shown in Fig. 8. 
 The back was curiously marked off, and looked like Fig. 9. 
 The whole gradually took on a very dark purple hue, and I 
 hoped to see it open and give up its treasure. But though I 
 watched very carefully, it stole a march on me, and one morn- 
 ing I found its secret disclosed and fluttering below the empty 
 chrysalis, now but a clear, rent tissue, with here and there a 
 pale gold dot. 
 
 FIG. 8. FIG. 9. 
 
 The butterfly is handsome and quite large (more than three 
 inches across when the wings are spread), but not quite so 
 beautiful as you would infer from his elegant house. He is of 
 a rich tawny orange, bordered with velvety black, on the 
 upper side, and a lighter nankeen yellow below ; and has a 
 large velvety black head, spotted with white. 
 
 As I did not know how large he would be, nor when he 
 
28 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 would come out for he did not invite me, as I said, to his 
 " opening," I had not given him a glass roomy enough for 
 his wings to expand entirely at the first, as they must, or re- 
 main imperfect. So afterward, although he had the liberty 
 of the whole room, he walked about with one wing folded 
 back over his shoulder, like a lady's opera-cloak. But I kept 
 him, and, learning that he came from the milk-weed cater- 
 pillar, I went in quest of one. I w r as fortunate enough to 
 find five in one search three on one milk- weed, and two on 
 another. I put them in a glass fernery, about one foot long 
 and ten inches high, and fed them with fresh milk-weed 
 leaves daily. Soon they mounted, one after another, to the 
 top, and began to work on the under side of the glass cover, 
 My curiosity was on the alert to see how each would build 
 his green house. I had seen cocoons of various kinds spun, 
 but the glass-smooth chrysalis could not be spun. Oh, no ! It 
 was altogether too nice work to be done in sight. There 
 was no sound of hammer or sight of tools. It was all 
 polished and painted and ready and lo ! the inner layers of 
 the caterpillar's skin had been the work-shop, and the outer 
 skin was taken down and discarded, like worthless scaflbld- 
 ing, when the green and gold house was ready. Pretty soon 
 there were five of these houses hanging from the glass roof,, 
 side by side ; and now there are five empty homes, still cling- 
 ing by the little shiny black twist that fastens them firmly 
 to the glass, and five handsome great butterflies, like the one- 
 
THE GREEN HOUSE WITH GOLD NAILS. 
 
 29 
 
 shown in Fig. 10. Only one of all these did I see break 
 the shell and come out, and that only by the most diligent 
 watching. The butterfly was packed, head downward, at the 
 bottom of the chrysalis wonderfully packed, as all will ad- 
 mit who see him emerge, to shake himself out into something 
 five or six times as wide, a beautiful uncramped butterfly. 
 
 FIG. 10. 
 
 After seeing them brighten a bouquet, and watching them 
 eat with their long spiral tongues from a little bed of moss 
 sprinkled with sweetened water, I let them take a nap under 
 a tumbler with a little pillow of chloroformed cotton, and, 
 unmarred even by a pin, they were ready to be laid away in 
 a glass-covered box in their long, dreamless sleep. 
 
30 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 It has been said by some entomologist that each plant is 
 visited by about five different insects. This year (1877) 1 
 have searched in vain on the milkweed for the large, hand- 
 some caterpillar of the Danais archippus. That there must 
 have been a few, the occasional presence of the Danais butter- 
 fly has proved. Two were seen in Massachusetts, flitting 
 gaily past me as if in mockery of a long and futile search I 
 had just made for the caterpillar among a whole tract of 
 milkweed ; one in Brooklyn, and one or two in Pennsylva- 
 nia, but they were exceedingly rare. The eggs were probably 
 destroyed by spiders and other insects, but why to so much 
 greater extent than the previous year is not so readily ex- 
 plained. 
 
 The only caterpillar (and that ver}^ abundant) which seems 
 to have lived upon the milkweed this year, and found upon 
 the same spot where the Danais caterpillars were so readily 
 obtained last year sometimes half a dozen upon one plant 
 is a small one in comparison to that of the Danais, of a soft, 
 woolly appearance, orange-red in color, and about an inch in 
 length, with hairs thickly set in starry clusters about each 
 fleshy ring. Three of these abundant orange-red caterpillars 
 have gone into a shiny-brown chrysalis and come out, after a 
 three weeks' sleep, into lavender-colored moths, perhaps an 
 inch and a half across the expanded wings, the wings edged 
 with a narrow orange border. They w r ere " traveled " cater- 
 pillars, going in a box as chrysalids from Pennsylvania to 
 
TWO FRON'T DOORS, ETC. 31 
 
 Massachusetts, coming out there, and traveling back as qui- 
 etly as if long journeys were a matter of course. A second 
 set of caterpillars of the same kind appeared in August, 
 some of which are now (September) in their chrysalid homes. 
 They made from their woolly, downy hairs (more soft than 
 those of any other caterpillar I have seen) a soft cocoon like 
 loose felt, and these four have gone up in pairs, two chrysa- 
 lids in each thin cocoon. This little lavender moth is neat 
 and quite pretty, but not to be compared for beauty to the 
 Danais archippus. 
 
32 INSECT LI VES. 
 
 III. 
 TWO FRONT DOORS, AND WHAT WAS BEHIND THEM. 
 
 A BUTTERFLY in March ! Velvety black, with wings 
 bordered with a double row of yellow spots, and the hinder 
 wings tailed, having also the added ornament of seven blue 
 spots (a nebula of dotted blue points, with a frosted sil- 
 very sheen making each spot). He is the Papilio asterias. 
 You have seen him in May, June, or July, hovering over 
 a bed of phlox or other sweet flowers; but unless you 
 caught him "in the bud," or, of course, when a caterpillar, 
 you would not have him in middle March. 
 
 FIG. 11. 
 CATERPILLAR. 
 
 The sole occupant of a glass fernery, sipping from sugar- 
 sprinkled moss with his long, uncoiled tongue, he seems 
 quite at home, and sees nothing of the snow now w r hiten-. 
 ing every branch and tiny shrub knows nothing of the 
 
TWO FRONT DOORS, ETC. 33 
 
 " April-fool," which, as Susan Coolidge says, spring throws 
 to the flowers outside the daring crocus and daffodil. 
 With his moss, and some fresh snowdrops in a vase, 
 standing in his glass house for dessert an extra drop of 
 sweetened water in their pure cups he is monarch of his 
 little world. 
 
 FIG. 12. 
 
 As a caterpillar, he was handsome, At first a tiny black 
 caterpillar, with a white stripe running through the center 
 of the body and across the tail, and covered with some 
 small black dots or points. The next coat has but one 
 white stripe across the middle, on the sixth and seventh 
 rings, with orange spots beneath the black points, two 
 white spots on his first ring, and a row of white spots on 
 each side. Then at last he has a rich coat, striped with 
 
34 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 black and dark green, and ornamented with deep yellow 
 spots. But his chrysalis is quite plain, with nothing of the 
 exquisite beauty of the green and gold house of the Dauais. 
 But when he leaves his shell, coming out by the narrowest 
 possible front door, so that you must look sharp to see the 
 thread-like opening, then he is much handsomer than the 
 Danais butterfly. So, many people, living in plain taber- 
 nacles, and sometimes regarded homely by others, have 
 something within, waiting to give great surprise, when. they 
 shall have escaped, through a narrow door, into a world of 
 wonderful light and beauty ! 
 
 The Papilio asterias is very fond, in his caterpillar form, 
 of the wild carrot, or garden carrot, parsley, or celery, and 
 any of the warm, aromatic plants, as anise, caraway, and 
 dill. 
 
 This March butterfly, as a caterpillar, was eating his 
 delicate carrot leaves and seeds last September at the same 
 time with the Danais caterpillar, and as we brought them 
 fresh leaves, day after day, and watched them go into 
 their queer little houses at the same time, we did not know 
 then but they would have their "opening" also, together. 
 But while the Danais was ready to come out in a fort- 
 night, or three weeks, the Asterias slept on until March 
 six months under his glass roof, without moving a hair's 
 breadth, until he was out trying his new wings, yesterday 
 morning. Some other kinds of chrysalids have kept him 
 
TWO FRONT DOORS, ETC. 35 
 
 company all this time, except that they have moved a little, 
 .and sometimes a good deal (when touched with a pencil, 
 or slightly blown upon), showing the life within ; but not 
 .a particle watch him never so closely moves the Asterias. 
 There were six chrysalids of this one kind under separate 
 glasses ; all of which were taken as caterpillars, and each of 
 which I had watched go into his separate house. It is not a 
 
 FIG. 13. 
 
 -cocoon, woven as some are of his own hairs, or spun from some 
 hidden substance through a spinneret; but like the Danais' it 
 is formed under the caterpillar skin, and when he is suspended 
 as a caterpillar, with a silken thread holding him about the 
 body, as shown in the picture, he drops off the entire skin, 
 .and it remains, as seen, beside his chrysalis, which is pale 
 and nondescript in color, knobbed with many little round 
 
36 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 protuberances, giving it a curious rather than pretty ap- 
 pearance. When one was out, the next thing was to look 
 at the others, when lo ! a most surprising revelation ! 
 Another chrysalis was empty, but the front door was very 
 different ! Instead of a crack, a thread wide and half an 
 inch long, in the upper part of the back (the narrow black 
 line in the chrysalis shows the butterfly's door), there was 
 in the side (marked in the picture of the chrysalis, and 
 only belonging' there to show this second front door) a per- 
 fectly round hole, the size of a pea; and trying his new 
 wings (four narrow, glossy, blue-black ones), was something 
 more unlike the butterfly than was the circular door he came 
 
 FIG. 14. 
 
 out of unlike the narrow door of the Asterias. Looking- 
 something like a saw-fly, and more like a wasp, it was a 
 large ichneumon fly. The parent ichneumon, having stung 
 the caterpillar and deposited the egg, the ichneumon was safe 
 in his provided chrysalis home, when he woke up to a sense 
 
TWO FRONT DOORS, ETC. 37 
 
 of his privileges, and not only appropriated the house of the 
 Asterias, but literally lived on the occupant, eating him up 
 and then making his own way into the world, leaving the 
 chrysalis entirely empty, and quite whole, with the exception 
 of the round door. His head and slender body, antennae, 
 and six feet, are all an ochre yellow. The eyes are large, 
 jetty black, and oval-shaped, and back of them, on the top 
 of the head, are three round, black beads, in a triangular 
 position. His body is joined to his head and shoulders by a 
 pedicel, so long and slender that he is able to work from it 
 like a pivot, in all directions, giving as fine specimens of 
 gymnastic operations as one often sees. 
 
 His veined, clear wings, are exquisitely glossy, and he pol- 
 ishes their steel blue till it burns like a mirror. He has the 
 vanity of a Beau Brummel, judging by the great pains he 
 hourly takes with his entire toilet. Grasping both his long 
 trembling antennae at once, and smoothing them out again, 
 as a philosopher would stroke his beard, nothing is left on 
 one of their thirty-five segments large enough for a micro- 
 scope to reveal. Then his wings and six legs go through the 
 ;same operation, and he is ready for a fresh supply of sugared 
 sweets. But alas, his mouth ! If he had claim to beauty in 
 every other particular, one good look at this remarkable fea- 
 ture in a mirror would secure his humility for ever. An hour's 
 ilose study with the microscope reveals no trace of beauty 
 about it ! The most curious transformations do no good in re- 
 
INSECT LIVES. 
 
 deeming its unmistakable homeliness. There are three pro- 
 jections from it impossible to describe two seem like short, 
 curved legs, with which it clasps its throat, and the center is a. 
 curved affair something like the letter V. It is very much 
 like the mouth of a wasp, but in such constant motion that 
 one can not guess at its exact shape or manner of manipula- 
 tion. 
 
 It is well that it is so small that it does 
 not detract from his looks except with the 
 use of a microscope and so long as he does 
 not know it himself we will allow his vanity 
 to be pardonable. 
 
 One such parasite will, however, satisfy us,, 
 and we hope only the narrow front door will 
 open for the rest of the Asterias chrysalids. 
 
 FIG. 15. 
 
THE EARL Y B UTTERFL F. 
 
 IY. 
 
 THE EARLY BUTTERFLY. 
 
 WALKING up a rocky lane one warm day in the latter part 
 of winter, my attention was called to a large, sombre-looking 
 butterfly, lying flat upon a rock. Any sort of butterfly, so 
 out of season, was worthy of notice, and, as this one was 
 very quiet, as if half asleep, I easily took him up and carried 
 him home with me. He was handsomer upon inspection than 
 
 FIG. 16. 
 THE EARLY BUTTERFLY. 
 
40 INSECT LI VES. 
 
 at first sight I had imagined. The wings, though grave in. 
 color, were really a rich purple brown, with a broad margin 
 of light yellow or buff, and six or seven spots of a lavender 
 color inside of the border on all the wings. He had a queer, 
 pinched-looking head, with sharp features, and furry front 
 feet. I did not know his name, and as he was very restless, 
 and beat constantly against his prison wall, I gave him his 
 liberty. Some months after, on June 5th, of the same year, 
 I found on a shrub, in the same rocky lane, a very formidable 
 looking spine-covered caterpillar. 
 
 FIG. 17. 
 
 He was black, but dotted with minute irregular white 
 spots, like tiny snow-flakes. There was a broad black line 
 running down the back, interrupted by eight spots of brick 
 red. Each side, also, was dotted with white spots. There 
 were seven rows of large spines, besides a row of very small 
 but similar ones low down, just over the feet. Each of the 
 two center spines on the ten rings were branched, as also the 
 two on the last ring. As these spines were stiff and sharp, 
 and did not lie particularly close to his body, he was treated 
 in a very cautious manner until safe in his glass prison, al- 
 
THE EARLY BUTTERFLY. 41 
 
 though I have been told that these caterpillars, and in fact 
 nearly all caterpillars, however formidable they may look, are 
 in fact harmless. The fiercest one I have ever seen, that of 
 the regal walnut moth (Ceratocampa r eg alls), very large, and 
 with long horny spines stretched over the head, which when 
 dirturbed he shakes in a threatening manner, is said to be 
 perfectly harmless. One would certainly prefer to test this 
 harmlessness when he had thrown off his horns, and, after a 
 smooth, chrysalis life, come out into the beautiful walnut 
 moth. 
 
 The caterpillar I had imprisoned did not at first like his 
 confinement at all, and showed a most worthy persistency in 
 attempts to solve the possibilities of escape, walking with en- 
 tire contempt over the fresh leaves of the willow from which 
 he was taken (and any species of which he will eat), going up 
 and down and across to every corner and joint of the box, 
 until, at last, apparently satisfied that he was secure in his 
 new abode, he as wisely accepted the situation and began 
 such a marvelous course of eating as showed that he had de- 
 termined, if he must be a prisoner, not to commit suicide by 
 starvation. Leaf after leaf disappeared and new ones were 
 supplied, until, at length, he suddenly stopped eating, and 
 began to weave a little thread and fasten himself securely at 
 right angles with the side of the box, much in the same 
 way as the Danais caterpillar. His head is round, large, and 
 flat on the top, resembling the old-fashioned velvet "jockey 
 
42 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 cap." There is no red spot on the first two rings from the 
 head, but on all the rest ; each spot, on close examination, 
 being made of three spots close together in the form of a 
 triangle, in this manner /. Nothing could be much meeker, 
 or in greater contrast to his first eager restlessness and snap- 
 pishness, than his appearance after he has fastened himself 
 by his hind feet firmly to the glass, with his head downward 
 and bowed forward touching the glass, only a slight move- 
 ment of the head now and then showing that he is alive. 
 His three pairs of true feet he draws close together like a 
 wedge, in short, spasmodic movements, and then slowly opens 
 them again. At last, after a day or more of this suspension, 
 he throws off the caterpillar skin and shakes himself into a> 
 brownish chrysalis, which operation takes but a few sec- 
 onds after it has begun. But the chrysalis, which 
 at first is soft and misshapen, has to assume its 
 characteristic form, which it does by contracting 
 and expanding and throwing out a protuberance, 
 until, in about an hour, it has its shape, and its 
 surface becomes hardened and the chrysalis com- 
 FIG. 18. plete. 
 
 This was on the 6th of June, and on the 18th day of the- 
 same month the chrysalis opened, and lo! there was my* 
 early winter butterfly, the Vanessa antiopa. This one was 
 much fresher and prettier than the one found in February, 
 and this I could well account for when I learned that this 
 
THE EARLY BUTTTERFLY. 
 
 43- 
 
 butterfly lives often all winter, hiding in some sheltered 
 spot, stupid and almost dormant, but ready for the first sunny 
 day, sometimes enticed from its hiding-place before the snow 
 is quite gone, its wings somewhat worn and faded by it& 
 winter's experience. Since then I know it as the earliest 
 butterfly, and am not surprised to see it early in February 
 heralding the spring far in advance of any other. 
 
44 
 
 INSECT > LIVES. 
 
THROUGH A GLASS CLEARLY. 
 
 45 
 
 V. 
 
 THKOUGH A GLASS CLEAKLY. 
 
 do not like to see a beautiful thing at a disadvantage. 
 When a large cocoon (yellowish-brown, and leaf enwrapped), 
 cut from a spray of wild raspberry, in September, had been 
 watched for over six months, and showed no signs of life 
 within, it was half given up as a useless affair. Inquiring 
 
 FIG. 20. 
 
 scissors, one day in March, stole an entrance into the cocoon 
 by carefully snipping one end, and cutting spirally round an 
 opening which revealed, unharmed, the living chrysalis 
 within. It seemed certain secret as it then was that 
 
46 
 
 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 from out this brown-ringed casket some beautiful thing was 
 preparing to emerge. 
 
 FIG. 21. 
 
 FIG. 22. 
 
 While watching it closely, a month later, one of the 
 vest-like folds on the breast slowly began to part, reveal- 
 ing, first, a curious bridge of fringe across the opening. 
 What could this be? The side of the clear-glass box, even, 
 was too much obstruction for the impatient watcher. "I 
 can not look at this through a glass darkly," I said, as the 
 lid was removed ; and slowly out came 
 this amber fringe, a broad, beautiful an- 
 tenna, yellow stemmed from base to tip, 
 with ochre-yellow fibers radiating from it 
 in a perfect plume. The other soon fol- 
 lowed. So large, so full, so beautiful an- 
 FIG. 23 tennse I had not seen before. 
 
 Now for the microscope. Ah, the difference between an 
 obstructing and a revealing glass ! Between seeing through 
 
THROUGH A GLASS CLEARLY. 47 
 
 a glass darkly and through a glass clearly ! A richly-colored 
 center stem, of thirty-one joints, and two filaments to each 
 joint, of exquisite finish and symmetry. Then a little wider 
 parting of the vest (no breaking of the chrysalis), now and 
 then a shiver and a spasmodic movement of the whole 
 chrysalis, with a little further exit another shiver, another 
 waiting, and in an hour and a half out came a beautiful (but 
 still limp and contracted) Polyphemus moth. 
 
 A pot of hepatica stood ready in the box for him to cling 
 to while expanding his wings, but the slight, fresh stems 
 proving too frail for his weight, the danger of a fall was pre- 
 vented by putting a stick into the earth beside the hepatica, 
 to which he immediately clung, and gently unfolded his soft- 
 hued ochre wings, bordered with gray, showing two large 
 and elegant eye-spots on the hinder ones, of a deep blue- 
 black, with a transparent oval in them, clear as a bit of 
 inserted mica. In the upper wings were two smaller trans- 
 parent ovals ; a collar, edged with lake color, and two spots 
 of lake-red, edged with black on the edge of the upper wings, 
 completed his beauty. The body, of a soft brown ochre, was 
 furry and feathery as an owl. Large eyes, six short furry 
 dark-brown legs, a softness of blending in color, and a gentle- 
 ness and grace of motion crowned the whole. Lifting his 
 large wings, his flight was slow and graceful ; no hurried 
 fluttering and wild beating against the glass when a prisoner; 
 no dashing about the room when at liberty. 
 
48 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 If ever a name was a misnomer, it is surely so in his case. 
 Polyphemus, a one-eyed furious giant, a murderer and greedy 
 cannibal, for him to give a name to this two-eyed, gentle- 
 natured and apparently tongueless moth (whom no sweets- 
 could tempt), simply because it is large ! As well might he 
 be called the Tower of Babel, Behemoth, Leviathan, or any 
 other great thing of earth or sea. He is, however, not likely 
 himself to apply to the legislature for redress for this griev- 
 ance. 
 
 The inside of this cocoon is finished with the hardness and 
 smoothness of the inside of an almond shell, which it closely 
 resembles, except being much larger. 
 
 The larva of this moth is described as of a bluish-green 
 color, with a yellowish-brown head, living upon the oak, elm, 
 and lime trees ; the cast-on? skin was inclosed in this cocoon. 
 The disposition of the eye-spotted ochre was well tested in 
 the artist's saloon. No philosopher ever showed more pa- 
 tience and dignity under repeated trials at the hands of a. 
 photpgrapher than he displayed in the hands of his persecu- 
 tors, with no knowledge of the cause to stimulate his vanity 
 and inspire his courage. 
 
 I said the mystery wrapped up in the brown cocoon was " a 
 secret." In studying Natural History we often learn the first 
 part of a lesson last ; sometimes the middle part first ; some- 
 times it is years after we get part first before we can find part 
 second, even of a short, small lesson. The pages of nature's. 
 
THROUGH A GLASS CLEARLY. 49 
 
 book are countless, but they are not all numbered, and some- 
 times we have to stop and wait in a most interesting place. 
 It is all the pleasanter when we complete the round. After 
 the Polyphemus moth had been mounted for months, a beau- 
 tiful caterpillar was given to me. He was very large ; of a 
 handsome pea-green color, with little points of golden yel- 
 low, which, in certain lights, had a beautiful pearly appear- 
 ance, like frosted silver. There were five or six of these 
 points on each ring. The feet and the head were a light 
 brown, almost exactly the color of an almond shell, and the 
 green Y-shaped tail was bordered with a line of darker 
 brown. 
 
 He was given to me one afternoon in August, just as I 
 was about to go out for a walk. After admiring him, and 
 noticing carefully his colors and peculiar shape, I said, " I 
 will sketch him, on my return." But there are some things 
 which do not wait upon our leisure, and a caterpillar, just 
 ready to retire to private life, is one. So, when I returned 
 to him, two hours after, the only way he could be sketched 
 was with his head and three or four front rings peering out 
 from a well-begun cocoon. He had already attached the 
 leaf (it was a maple, as he was found near a maple tree) to 
 the side of the glass box, and drawn it about him partially, 
 and was working very busily. 
 
 My disappointment in his special hurry was relieved, how- 
 ever, by finding, a few days later, and in quite a different 
 
50 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 locality, another caterpillar of the same kind, which is now 
 before me, clinging to a spray of oak leaves, eating and 
 resting as he chooses, with a sort of elegant leisure. Turn- 
 ing away from a maple leaf, he shows his preference for the 
 oak ; clasping the stem of the leaves firmly with his ten false 
 feet, he moves his brown head silently back and forth, while 
 the leaf melts away before him very steadily. He has the 
 
 FIG. 24. 
 
 same disposition manifested by the Polyphemus moth, which 
 he anticipates. He never jerks about, when disturbed, or 
 shows the slightest irritation, as do many of the caterpillars, 
 and is so quiet in every movement that you feel sure he is 
 well contented with life as he finds it, with no regrets for 
 the past or speculations about the future. A perfect contrast 
 to him is the little, jerky, impatient caterpillar of the quince, 
 
THROUGH A GLASS CLEARLY. 51 
 
 in a box beside him, who, if touched the most lightly, will 
 actually spring up and throw himself entirely over, in the 
 most astonishing manner. Between these extremes, every 
 variety of disposition prevails among them. "When at full 
 length, this Polyphemus caterpillar is about three inches 
 long ; but when hunched up like a half-closed Chinese lan- 
 tern as he now lies, eating his oak leaf he seems but little 
 over an inch in length. 
 
 The edge of the first ring, which comes close round, like a 
 hood, over the brown head, is light lemon yellow, and the 
 upper or second joint of the true feet, and a narrow border 
 above the brown feet, are also yellow. The diagonal side 
 stripes are yellow, also ; the spiracles forming a dash near 
 the center of each diagonal line are a lake-colored brown. 
 Each one of the diagonal lines is finished at either end with 
 a round orange or gold-colored knob (like the old-fashioned 
 "frog button"), with a single white bristle in each. 
 
 This marvelous detail of finish in even the smallest insect 
 excites our constant wonder and admiration. 
 
 The cocoon spun so suddenly by the first of these two 
 caterpillars is exactly like the one cut from the wild rasp- 
 berry, except that the color is a lighter yellow. The leaves 
 are drawn over it in the same manner, and firmly glued to 
 the cocoon. The mystery which this had seemed before was 
 solved, by witnessing him make the cocoon, just as you 
 would better understand the Chinese ball within a ball after 
 
52 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 seeing one cut. He first bent the leaf in the position re- 
 quired, drawing it up at the end, and lapping it over at the 
 side. Then he spun the fine, creamy threads of silk, weaving 
 back and forth very dexterously, connecting the opening of 
 the leaves with the side of the box. Contracting his body 
 more than one-half within this leafy outline, he worked 
 himself adroitly into positions to form its symmetrical out- 
 line. I watched his work until very late in the evening, and 
 the next morning further watching was useless. He had 
 " wrapped the drapery of his couch about him, and lain 
 down to pleasant dreams." 
 
 More than six months he slept in his cocoon ; and now in. 
 April, 1878, he is a handsome Polyphemus moth. Very 
 curiously, he came out just one day later than the one last 
 year from the wild raspberry. That was on April 19th, and 
 this came out April 20th. This moth is not quite so bright 
 as the male one, and the antennae are not so large and plume- 
 like; but otherwise it is equally handsome. The second of 
 the two caterpillars, as it spun up a little later, is not yet out r 
 but the cocoon has been peered into, and the chrysalis, in the 
 increasing clearness of its rings, and its active movements 
 when disturbed, gives promise of an early exit. There is no- 
 danger of injuring the moth by carefully opening the cocoon 
 which holds the chrysalis, and then its change can be watched 
 as it turns from a dark brown to a lighter shade, and becomes 
 almost transparent before it opens. Since writing the above y 
 
THROUGH A GLASS CLEARLY. 53 
 
 a friend sent me from another state, a box with a note 
 which was read before opening the box which said, two 
 handsome caterpillars would be found in the box. On trying 
 to remove the lid, I found something was the matter; when 
 lo, instead of what was promised me, two large, scarcely 
 completed cocoons ! My disappointment would have been 
 greater had I not known them at once as belonging to the 
 Polyhpemus moth. They were busy travelers, building as 
 they went, and in one short journey completing a house, with 
 a, speed and perfection of finish which puts greater architects 
 to shame. 
 
54 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 VI. 
 
 HOW I CAUGHT A BEAR. 
 
 I WAS walking quite alone, when a slight noise attracted 
 my attention. I looked about me, when, close at hand, and 
 deliberately advancing toward me, I saw a bear. 
 
 I was not in the least alarmed, which proves how much 
 there is in a name, for I did not then know he was a bear. 
 
 Determined to capture him, I armed myself with a small 
 twig and a very small cage in the shape of a tumbler. 
 
 Instead of resisting, he coiled up quickly into a ball, was 
 tipped into the cage, and this soon inverted over a piece of 
 white paper on a book. 
 
 Thinking a leaf might attract him, I put a bit of cabbage 
 leaf under the glass, and soon he was forgetful of his im- 
 
 FIG. 25. 
 
 prisonment in satisfying what proved to be an almost 
 insatiable appetite. 
 
HOW I CAUGHT A BEAU. 55 
 
 He spent his time for some days in devouring leaves and 
 taking exercise by rapidly traveling about his small prison. 
 
 Eat, march, eat, march, was his programme, until, not 
 satisfied with one den, he made himself another, and having 
 sealed himself in, I saw him as he was no more. I afterward 
 found that inside of the second den he formed another. His 
 winter quarters were secure. 
 
 This was in September. He slept undisturbed until 
 March, and then he began to go about again quite freely, 
 but in a new coat. He ate, too, but very delicately. Not 
 leaves, but a dainty sip of honeyed sweets. In September 
 he was a yellow -bear caterpillar. In March he was an 
 ermine moth. 
 
 FIG. 26. FIG. 27. 
 
 A white miller, we should say, but when we part his 
 wings we see his body is yellow striped lengthwise, and 
 alternating with each stripe has a row of black dots. And 
 on his wings there is the merest point of a black dot (one 
 on each fore wing, and two on the hinder ones), so very 
 small that you would not at first notice them. But they 
 belong to him, and are always there. For he is not the only 
 
56 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 bear we have watched through this change, and four or five 
 quiet, dreamy, pointed, black-dotted moths are now in a box 
 close by me, all alike, except a little different in size. 
 
 FIG. 28. 
 
 These are the Virginia ermine moths. 
 
 In the same box are some many-spotted ermine moths, 
 something like leopard moths ; but whether tiger, bear, or 
 leopard, the name is not derived from the nature, as all are 
 quite meek, and much more like a lamb. 
 
 There is one of these white millers beside me now as I 
 write. The same tiny speck on each fore wing, the same 
 two dots on the hinder wing. He, too, went into his den in 
 September, and came out in March (1879), so white and 
 furry about the head that if as a caterpillar he should be 
 called a yellow bear, as a moth I should call him a polar 
 bear. 
 
CRUMPLE-WING. 
 
 57 
 
 VII. 
 
 CRUMPLE-WING. 
 
 FIG. 29. 
 
 CRUMPLE-WING came out of his winter's sleep in March. 
 He went in in September. He was a salt-marsh caterpillar 
 
 FIG. 30. 
 
 (the Arctia acrea). But he seemed very much at home in an 
 inland garden. He was on the croquet ground, plodding his 
 
58 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 way among rolling balls and quick footsteps, when he was 
 made a prisoner. 
 
 He lived on grass, plantain and other leaves, until he wove 
 his yellowish -brown hairy cocoon under his glass tumbler. 
 
 I do n't know why he came out of his long rest with a 
 crumpled wing. I think he had plenty of room under his 
 glass, and no one touched him before he was perfectly free 
 and walking about in his queer one-sided manner. When a 
 Danais butterfly, on coining out of his chrysalis last summer,, 
 exhibited a marred and crumpled wing, I knew it was be- 
 cause he had been confined in too small a space for his wings 
 to expand fully ; and the form of the pupa itself had been 
 compressed by the position in which it was formed, so as to 
 resemble in shape half an acorn-cup rather than a whole 
 acorn, which it looks a good deal like when perfect. Another 
 Danais had its wing marred by touching it very gently with 
 a pencil's point, in the eagerness to see it expand more 
 quickly. The slightest touch at that time will injure this 
 delicate fabric, than which nothing in nature seems more 
 susceptible of harm. But there was, no doubt, a hidden 
 reason tor Crumple- wing's misfortune, at whatever time it oc- 
 curred. His right wings are perfect and quite handsome. 
 The hinder left wing but half unrolled, and much shriveled. 
 The hinder wings are a rich ocher-yellow ; the front pair 
 white, dotted with black, and ocher-lined. His back is ocher- 
 yellow, with seven black spots down its center ; six on the 
 
CRUMPLE-WING. 59- 
 
 yellow, and one on the last ring of the body, which is white. 
 Two rows of black spots ornament the sides, and there is one 
 on the under side of the body also. His antennae are long and 
 graceful, and the microscope shows them to be variegated in 
 color, and with spiky hairs, instead of being feathered. His 
 head and neck-cape are tinged with ocher. At first he ap- 
 peared so indifferent to food that it seemed doubtful whether 
 he had a tongue; and after being tempted in vain with 
 sugared water, he was left some days to work out the ques- 
 tion without it. But when next offered a chance to break 
 his fast, it was amusing to see how eagerly he thrust out his 
 short, amber-colored tongue and drew up the sweets, as a 
 a child would sip lemonade with a straw. After his long fast, 
 before eating, he had strength enough to tow another moth 
 and two empty cocoons (which chanced to b'e caught together 
 near him) all about his box, having entangled the claw of 
 his foot in the loose hair of the empty chrysalis cover. One- 
 or two dead moths were placed purposely near him. He 
 walked slowly about them, looking at them with the appear- 
 ance of an anxious doctor or surgeon, studying the case for a 
 time, and then walking off, evidently satisfied that hope was 
 gone when no sign of life could be perceived. It never- 
 seemed to occur to him to attend to his own case, which was, 
 however, well enough, as it would have required as much 
 skill to unroll his shriveled wing into symmetry as to put 
 into their dead forms a new life. Just as he stands now,. 
 
60 
 
 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 with his head and left wing hidden under a leaf of the 
 blooming hepatica, you would never think of calling him 
 Crumple-wing. His best foot is foremost. He is a fine 
 looking Acrea. 
 
 FIG. 31. 
 
UNDER THE CAPE. 61 
 
 VIII. 
 
 UNDER THE CAPE. 
 
 THE very day Crumple- wing gave up trying to inspect 
 others, or hold on to his own life any longer, another Arctia 
 acrea came out. His brown cocoon was larger than Crumple- 
 wing's. In fact so much larger than any one of the kind 
 I had been watching, that a very fine specimen was looked 
 for from it. As other Acreas had appeared, who went in 
 about the same time, he was daily expected, and a hope 
 (which rather grows less as moths increase in number), was 
 indulged that his exit might be witnessed. A slight appearance 
 of a disturbance at one end of the cocoon had been noticed, 
 and he was closely watched. Just as the tea bell rang 
 another look was given to his glass box ; when lo ! there 
 was a small oval opening in one end of the cocoon, and 
 the moth was rapidly advancing up the side of the box 
 to the top. But worse than Crumple-wing ! Except that he 
 was symmetrical, his yellow, black-dotted body was only par- 
 tially covered by a very short white cape, and two pairs of 
 very sbort wings, looking like the old-fashioned double-cloak 
 capes, without the cloak. 
 
INSECT LIVES. 
 
 Watching him for a little, with a curious mixture of 
 wonder and pity, we left him ; when lo ! on return- 
 ing in half an hour he was all right as perfect 
 and handsome a specimen of the white-winged 
 Acrea as could be found. His cloak had only 
 been packed under his cape. And this is the way 
 he looked before he shook it out. 
 FIG. 31 . If another caped moth is seen before he has 
 shaken out his entire garment, something more than a tea 
 bell will be needed to prevent a careful watching of the pro- 
 cess. There was nothing of the limp appearance of a new 
 butterfly, to suggest any further development of wings as 
 necessary. His cape was snowy and full and downy, and he 
 walked off with the buoyancy and strength of a fully devel- 
 oped and perfectly dressed creature. The black dots upon his 
 wings are more exactly symmetrical than in any of this kind 
 before noticed. By actual count almost precisely equal in 
 number, as well as alike in shape and size. The color under 
 the throat is a rich orange, and also of the thighs ; the legs 
 being five jointed, alternating in black and white. The joints 
 resemble the divisions in the stems of rushes, as is the case 
 with those of most moths when examined with the micro- 
 scope. The last joint terminates in a sharp, black claw, with 
 which he can cling with a force not to be overcome without 
 danger of breaking. His antennse are spiked, instead of 
 feathered ; and if Crumple- wing is an Arctia, as we have 
 
UNDER THE CAPE. 
 
 63 
 
 supposed, and he seems to answer the description of that 
 moth exactly, this is one of the same class, without the ocher- 
 lined front and the ocher hinder wings. When at rest his 
 wings are roofed or sloped downward, covering the yellow 
 spotted body entirely. 
 
 
 FIG. 32. 
 
64 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE AKCTIAN AND ICHNEUMON. 
 
 THERE were still two chrysalids of the Arctian left, and 
 two days after the one had stolen out from under his double 
 cape (all moths and butterflies have the double-cape appear- 
 ance), one of these chrysalids was seen slowly ascending the 
 glass prison wall, piloted by the head and forelegs of an ash- 
 colored moth, creeping slowly along with his heavy brown 
 house on his back ! 
 
 It was another Arctia, or " false ermine moth," as those of 
 this gray color are sometimes called. After a little while the 
 chrysalis fell, and the moth was free ; but, as he had "jarred 
 in the gate " (from not being able from some reason to throw 
 off' the chrysalis so soon as he ought), his wings were some- 
 what cramped, and he looked like a second cousin to Crum- 
 ple-wing. 
 
 After a supper of sweetened water, and upon the lighting 
 of the gas (which always puts fresh life into every fiber of a 
 moth), he shook out his wings very respectably, and showed 
 his appreciation of light as the first object in life. He was 
 of a soft glossy ash color, and his body had three rows of 
 black dots running lengthwise down the center and sides. 
 
THE AECTIAN AND ICHNEUMON. 65 
 
 It is no slander to say that he was double-tongued, which, 
 however much to be deprecated in human beings, is really 
 nothing against one who uses his tongue only to gather 
 sweets. 
 
 While some of the larger moths seem to have no tongue, 
 the Arctians are usually supplied with two. They are coiled 
 up side by side, sometimes joined together lengthwise, and 
 sometimes quite separate. 
 
 The last remaining chrysalis was just like the one of the 
 ash-colored moth, but when it opened, instead of the expected 
 Arctian, out came a large slender-bodied Ichneumon fly! his 
 head bright yellow and his legs alternating with honey-yel- 
 low and black. His wings are a brilliant steel blue. He 
 resembles the Ichneumon that came out of the " round " front 
 door of the Asterias, but is larger, and has a sword-shaped 
 borer nearly half an inch in length, giving him rather a 
 formidable appearance, as he comes buzzing in his "April 
 fool ! " with a bold whirr, instead of stealing in softly with the 
 meekness of the feather- winged Arctian. 
 
66 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 THE WHITE ERMINE MOTH. 
 
 I FOUND him one November day, 
 
 A stiffened circlet at my feet, 
 And made him prisoner in my room, 
 
 His brown coat glistening with the sleetf 
 
 Awhile he lay as still and stiff, 
 As though his little life were o'er, 
 
 Then yielding to the new-found warmth, 
 Shook off the icy pearls he wore, 
 
 Surveyed awhile his crystal walls, 
 Shut in from liberty and cold ; 
 
 Then built an inner prison wall, 
 Closely his body to enfold. 
 
 He seemed to sleep an endless sleep, 
 
 Silent and still so long he lay, 
 "When lo ! in robes of snowy white 
 
 He sprang to life one winter's day ! 
 
A HUNDRED TO ONE. 
 
 6 
 
 XI. 
 
 A HUNDRED TO ONE. 
 
 FIG. 33. 
 
 had been looking in vain for caterpillars on grape- 
 Tine, walnut, and sycamore, when we stopped before a large 
 woodbine, which threw its clusters over the side of my 
 friend's piazza, in Pittsfield, Mass. We sent our eyes upon a 
 voyage of discovery, and peering among the thick matted 
 mass of green 
 
 " Oh, here is a fine fellow," exclaimed Teddy, the eager 
 little boy being the first to discover a pale green caterpillar, 
 so nearly the color of the vine that the similarity was his 
 greatest protection. 
 
68 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 "Here is another, and another! They seem to be out in 
 force to-day ; but these are so high up how shall I reach 
 them ? " 
 
 " I '11 get a step ladder," said Teddy ; and disappearing 
 behind the corner of the piazza, he soon came back tugging 
 the heavy steps, and placed them under the woodbine. Now 
 for some tumblers. They were soon brought, and the cater- 
 pillars imprisoned before they knew it, eating on the leaf 
 which had been clipped from the vine. without even disturb- 
 ing their dinner. It was well we secured as many as we did, 
 or even one moth might not have repaid us ; for the cater- 
 pillar of the woodbine, in common with many others, has a 
 secret little enemy, from which he is not apt to escape. 
 These nice looking ones with such good appetites, however, 
 did not seem' to have any lurking danger. But one can not 
 always tell. Damocles was not the only one over whose head 
 hung a sword while he was enjoying his repast. Teddy se- 
 lected two of the best not to keep himself but for the friend 
 who was helping him hunt them. The caterpillars were soon 
 separated ; Teddy's remaining where they were found, and 
 the two others going a long journey. Pretty soon some 
 strange things appeared on Teddy's caterpillar. He ate on, 
 but looked rather dispirited, as if he had caught a glimpse 
 of the hair by which the fatal sword was suspended. Soon 
 he was walking about with something all over his back, 
 which made him look as if he had taken a bath, and then. 
 
A HUNDRED TO ONE. 69 
 
 rolled about in a box of rice ! The microscope showed these 
 xice grains to be perfect cocoons, white and silky, and each 
 
 FIG. 34. 
 
 looking as if a little cover were fitted to one end. Something 
 moves inside of these. Some of the little intruders are still 
 working on the inside of their rice-houses, polishing the ceil- 
 ing and giving the finishing touch to the walls. 
 
 By and by they are completed, and then the woodbine cat- 
 erpillar begins to grow weaker. After a week or two, these 
 little covers begin to fly open, and as they lie back on their 
 hinges, out of each one creeps a small fly, and begins to go 
 up the glass. 
 
 He is a prisoner, and we can study him. He is one of our 
 old friends, a species of Ichneumon, with ugly mouth, jointed 
 .antennae, hooked feet, amber legs, and thin, narrow wings. 
 He is very small but there are so many ! 
 'The poor caterpillar can not stand it. A 
 hundred to one is too much, and by the time 
 that over one hundred of these swords have 
 pierced his body, he was, as Teddy's grand- FIG. 35. 
 
 mother said, "very dead." Here is his likeness, which au 
 
70 
 
 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 artist took for Teddy's friend. You can only see his head r 
 one or two wings, and one foot. 
 
 FIG. 36. 
 
 But the two caterpillars which took the journey seemed to- 
 escape this trouble. They both soon went into chrysalids* 
 One drew a leaf about him, and fastened it with a few glossy 
 hair lines to the bottom of the glass ; the other made a hint 
 of a cocoon, with a thin network of gauze-spun threads, 
 and twenty days after came out a pretty moth the fore- 
 wings olive gray, banded and shaded with olive green, and 
 the hind wings a reddish brick or rust color. Both pairs of 
 wings were uniquely scalloped. The chrysalids were, first a 
 sort of mulberry color, irregularly spotted here and there,, 
 and the one which opened, growing brown (and a very dark 
 
A HUNDRED TO ONE. 71 
 
 brown between some of the center rings), just before coming 
 out. The second chrysalis, formed some days later, is brown 
 and dark-ringed ; but as it is a fortnight 
 since the moth made his appearance, he 
 is taking it very leisurely, if he appear 
 at all. This caterpillar and moth answer FIG. 36 . 
 
 to the description given by Harris of the Choerocampa, or 
 hog caterpillar (which seems as great a misnomer as that of the 
 Polyphemus), from a fancied resemblance of the head to that 
 animal the head of the caterpillar being small, and the 
 fourth and fifth rings very large, and tapering to the small head. 
 The moth has been named Pampinatrix, from its living on 
 the shoots of the vine. The caterpillar lives upon the grape, 
 as well as the woodbine. In Harris' description, it is said 
 that the moth leaves the chrysalis " in the month of July, of 
 the following year." But this (as most other moths) has an 
 opportunity of trying the world twice in the course of a year. 
 Some very large caterpillars four inches in length, and as 
 large as one's finger or thumb closely resembling the 
 Choerocampa in shape, have since been found on a woodbine 
 in Pennsylvania. They were, however, so completely covered 
 with the " rice houses " (more than a hundred to one) that 
 they were not kept. Only, the parasites were brushed from 
 one into a box, and now the " syrup cups " are opening, and 
 a perfect colony of Ichneumons are running up and down the 
 glass, wondering how they came to be born in prison. 
 
72 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 XII. 
 
 THE UNFINISHED LIFE OF QUAKER GRAY. 
 
 I HAD a little Quaker, dressed 
 
 In starry robe of gray, 
 With silken tufts of black and white 
 
 Completing his array. 
 
 His home was on a Quaker leaf, 
 
 A poplar, silver-lined ; 
 On this he lived, from this he ate, 
 
 Beneath my glass confined. 
 
 If frightened, he would drop the fringe 
 
 Of tufted black and white, 
 Putting his jetty, varnished head 
 
 Completely out of sight. 
 
 One day, when he grew very tired 
 
 Tired of his poplar leaf, 
 Tired of his small glass prison and 
 
 His little life, so brief, 
 
THE UNFINISHED LIFE OF QUAKER GRAY. 73 
 
 He climbed his crystal wall, and wove, 
 
 In silence all the day, 
 A Quaker hammock for himself, 
 
 Of tissue silvery gray ; 
 
 Wove it about his bead-like head, 
 
 About his feet, so queer 9 
 Ten feet behind, like amber spools, 
 
 So yellow and so clear, 
 
 And six in front, like tiny horns 
 
 So, fastened in his net, 
 Day after day, as still as death, 
 
 Hung the poor Quaker pet. 
 
 One morning, slowly out he crept, 
 
 And a fresh suit he wore, 
 But to my disappointment, just 
 
 Like what he had before. 
 
 Perhaps a little longer waved 
 
 His tufts of black and white, 
 Perhaps a little glossier grew 
 
 His silvery coat, so bright. 
 
74 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 Weeks passed ; a closer net lie wove, 
 
 Again of sober gray, 
 And, self-immured, profoundly slept 
 
 His second life away. 
 
 More than a year for coming wings 
 I watched that tight-locked cell. 
 
 Still closed remains his prison door, 
 And now I know full well 
 
 That this short tale of Quaker Gray 
 Is all that I can tell ! 
 
AN EARLY CECROPIAN. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 AN EARLY CECROPIAN. 
 
 FIG. 37. 
 
 Two rough brown oval cocoons, spun (with one flat sur- 
 face fastened lengthwise to a branch) by the large green cat- 
 erpillar of the Attacus cecropia moth, 
 were brought in, and lying side by 
 side, looked as nearly alike as pos- 
 sible. From one of them, on March 
 1st, as if to show his appreciation FlG - 
 
 of spring, the fine Cecropian stole out which is now in the- 
 glass before me. The other cocoon, from eagerness to see 
 what promise it gave of a mate, was carefully cut at one end ; 
 when lo, an empty chrysalis within ! Even with a microscope 
 
76 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 no place of exit was to be discerned. But his cast-off dress 
 was in the tomb, and it was evident he had with more skill 
 and silence than the vanishing Arab, gone off without his 
 tent, to enjoy the freedom he could not have had, had he been 
 born in prison. I could easily believe the remark of Harris, as 
 I searched in vain for the "front door," that the threads of 
 the cocoon of this moth " converge again by their own elas- 
 ticity, so as almost entirely to close the opening after the in- 
 sect has escaped." In fact, I could omit the "almost." The 
 change is indeed marvelous from the large, light green and 
 coral-dotted caterpillar (making one think of a cactus stem 
 that had concluded to walk off), to the gray, white, and cinna- 
 mon-brown moth (fig. 39). The six legs and most of the 
 body are cinnamon red. The broad, brown antennae, with 
 central amber stem, come out from the front of the rather 
 small cinnamon-colored head. Just back of this a neat white 
 collar, and then the tufty brown extends back half an inch, 
 and from it proceed the wings. Then comes a narrow band 
 of lead color, and the rest of the body is ringed with black, 
 white, and cinnamon red, alternating. Along each side are 
 seven round cinnamon-red spots, bordered with white. The 
 finish of the hinder wings, in heavy lines of alternate gray 
 and black, remind one of pheasant's wings ; but above this 
 border is a line of the red, and above that, a narrow line of 
 white. In the rich, furry grayish-brown of the hind wings 
 are two large crescents of red and white. The front wings 
 
AN EARLY CECROPIAN. 
 
 7T 
 
78 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 have no white in the stripe above the beautiful scolloped gray 
 and reddish- white. They have an eye spot near the edge of 
 very dark brown or black, edged with white. It is a very 
 rich moth, though not as soft in the harmony of its colors 
 .as the Polyphemus. Like that it is very gentle in its manner, 
 keeping almost entirely quiet during the day, and flying but 
 little in the evening. Its eyes are black. If it has any 
 tongue it is not to be seen, at least while the moth is living, 
 even with a microscope ; nor can the moth be tempted to use it. 
 Its wonderful tenacity of life, when this fact is considered, 
 is very remarkable. It will live about three weeks apparently 
 with no food, and pays slight attention to any thing ordi- 
 narily used in putting moths to sleep ! This moth stands 
 most of the day with its wings almost together, but will 
 slowly open them to their full extent if blown upon slightly. 
 The caterpillar may be found upon the apple, cherry, or plum- 
 tree, and changes, from being at first a deep yellow, to its last 
 coat of handsome light green, before going into its chrysalis 
 (fig 35). It is said by Harris to come out in June, but, 
 whether on account of the very mild winter and the usual 
 difference of climate between Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, 
 or as a surprise to insect lovers, this Cecropia is three months 
 in advance of that season. So early an exit will make less dif- 
 ference to a moth without a tongue. There are three fine co- 
 coons of the Attacus cecropia before me, in a glass box (opened 
 at one side so that the chrysalids can be watched), as I write 
 
THE EARLY CECROPIAN. 79 
 
 (March 29, 1879), and by the transparent lines between the 
 rings, one of them shows it will soon release its impatient 
 prisoner. The Cecropia worm spins its cocoon invariably 
 alongside a twig or branch, as shown in the cut, when in the 
 orchard or wood. But one of these three (the caterpillar of 
 which was confined in a glass jar) made his cocoon of the 
 usual shape and texture, except that the material is a richer 
 glossier brown, but it is not attached to a stem. It was fast- 
 ened to the side of the glass by a heavy web of dark silk, 
 very much darker than the cocoon itself, which is a hand- 
 some russet brown. The inner lining is very glossy, and 
 the whole fully three inches long. 
 
INSECT LIVES. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE ROSY DRYOCAMPA. 
 
 I HAVE been April-fooled several times within the last 
 hour. Not by a person ; but by a moth my beautiful Rosy 
 Dryocampa It was no April fool, but a very pleasant sur- 
 prise, its coming out this April morning after its long, sound 
 sleep, never once moving, in the black, ring-notched chrysa- 
 lis, since it went into it on the twenty-sixth of last August. 
 A beautiful little creature it is, especially the under wings, 
 
 which look, more than any 
 thing else, like a stray rose- 
 tinted sea-shell, such as one 
 sometimes finds, nearly trans- 
 parent, and almost as flat as a 
 FlG - 40 - rose petal. 
 
 I was trying to sketch it, and it would stay so perfectly 
 still that I would think, "Now, I shall have a good chance!" 
 and lo ! when one wing, or the crested head, was half drawn, 
 away it would fly. Recaptured, I would begin again, and 
 with the same success as before ; so that when I had about 
 six half-finished sketches, in as many different positions, I 
 
THE ROSY DEYOCAMPA. 81 
 
 remembered it was the first of April, and quietly put it under 
 glass, until the picture was secured. 
 
 There are but two colors, rose and yellow. The upper 
 wings deeply bordered with rose, behind, and broad epau- 
 lettes of the same color. The under body and feet are rose 
 color, also, and there is the faintest hint of rose on the under 
 wings, which are studiously kept out of sight. All the rest 
 is a bright yellow. The head is tufted, and the eyes are set 
 so far under in front as not to show, unless you peer under 
 the tuft, where you see them, black and round, close to his 
 little front feet. There is a triangle of yellow, bordered with 
 red, between them, and a little triangular tuft of the same 
 color at the base of each of the delicate antennae. Much of 
 the time when the moth is at rest these antennse are com- 
 pletely hidden, by lying back close along the edge of the 
 front wings (like those of the Quinque maculatum), so that 
 you would be apt at first to think he had none. They have 
 about thirty joints, as near as one can count them when in 
 such constant vibration as they are pretty sure to be when in 
 sight. He will keep perfectly still two hours at a time (if 
 you are not attempting to take his picture), then fly about 
 wildly for two or three minutes, and then for hours remain 
 immovable, as if dead. This one prefers .to stand showing 
 but three feet two on one side, and one on the other and 
 no coaxing draws out the shy foot. The under wings ' are 
 kept out of sight, except a little margin in front, near the 
 
82 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 head, which shows a small crescent of faint rose color below 
 the upper wings. The antennae of the female moth are 
 simple, like a little strand of beads, while those of the male 
 are spined, being larger, as are those of all male moths. The 
 only other moth of this kind which I have seen went into 
 the chrysalis state in the summer (July 5, 1877), and came 
 out the last of the same month (July 27th), perfecting in that 
 time the work, which however soon completed, in the fall 
 caterpillar remains out of sight nearly half a year. Harris, 
 in the description of the Rosy Dryocampa, says, " The cater- 
 pillar is unknown to me," and I have not seen it described 
 elsewhere. The two which I had (one of which I watched 
 through the change into the chrysalis) were taken from be- 
 neath the maple tree, and were nearly ready for their change. 
 They do not spin any cocoon, nor attach themselves to the 
 glass (like the caterpillar of the Danais and also of the As- 
 terias, and others), but *work off the caterpillar skin the 
 chrysalis first appearing of rather a bright green or yellowish 
 color, and soon becoming quite black. 
 
 The summer chrysalis would move, when touched (advanc- 
 ing on the paper with a peculiar gliding motion, by means 
 of the toothed edges of the rings) ; but the winter one was 
 never seen to move a hair's breadth. The caterpillar has 
 twelve rings, is a pale pea-green, and striped lengthwise 
 (which gives it a somewhat checkered appearance) in narrow 
 stripes of a little deeper shade of green. The head is a 
 
THE ROSY DRYOCAMPA. 
 
 83 
 
 FIG. 42. 
 
 FIG. 41. 
 
 russet-brown color, and there are two soft black horns on the 
 second ring about one-third of an inch in length. The under 
 side of the two rings before the last are a purplish-brown, 
 edged all along with short, black spines. There are a few 
 short, black spines on the last two rings, and the V-shaped 
 tail is edged also with a border of them, as also is a line 
 along each side of the body. There are minute black warts 
 symmetrically arranged about each ring, about five on each. 
 It is curious to compare a butterfly or caterpillar either with 
 another or with some written description, and notice the ex- 
 actness of repetition in spot, spine, and marking of every 
 
84 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 sort. In writing as minute a description of a certain cater- 
 pillar as could be given from counting both spots and spines, I 
 was pleased to find afterward a printed description answering 
 count for count. There is not always the same similarity in 
 their cocoons, as they will accommodate themselves to circum- 
 stances rather than give up the idea of building their home. 
 The Polyphemus will always draw leaves together in a grace- 
 ful manner about his cocoon ; but one, from whom I took his- 
 supply of leaves, when about to spin, made his cocoon with- 
 out it. It is true he was the only one of several which I had 
 who died in his cocoon ; whether from mortification that he- 
 was obliged to deviate from his usual plan, I never learned^ 
 But the chrysaiids (except from some malformation) seem to* 
 be as exactly similar as the moths and caterpillars. 
 
THE SATURNIA JO 
 
 85 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE SATURNIA TO. 
 
 THE handsome Indian yellow moth, Saturnia lo, was one I 
 learned backward. Finding a beautiful moth of this kind on 
 a fence one evening at twilight, I secured him with delight, 
 
 FIG. 43, 
 
 lout with no knowledge of his name or from what sort of 
 chrysalis or caterpillar he had come. After keeping him 
 some days, I found him one afternoon apparently dead. 
 
86 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 Touching him, or moving him along even, with a pencil, be- 
 trayed no sign of life, and he was carefully placed in a box 
 containing several other specimens. While reading in the 
 same room that evening, I was startled by an unusual sound,, 
 which, as I was alone, was a little annoying at first, but soon 
 I perceived the noise came from the direction of a box of 
 moths! And sure enough, my Saturnia lo, far from being 
 dead, had taken occasion to call on each particular moth in 
 the collection in the most unceremonious manner, ascertain- 
 ing to its entire satisfaction, if not to mine, that none of the 
 others had been put away (not to say buried) alive. Some deli- 
 cate wings were detached from poor victims unable to return 
 this unmercifully swift whisking about ; and before the Io> 
 could be safely transferred to solitary confinement, he had 
 brought confusion out of order in the most undesirable man- 
 ner possible. So began my acquaintance with lo. In the 
 latter part of the following August, a caterpillar was given 
 me by a friend, of a kind I had not seen before, and soon I 
 found two others like him. They were between two and 
 three inches long, and of a light pea-green color. The twelve 
 rings were each starred with a cluster of green spines, tipped 
 with a dark purple, looking almost black. These were sharp 
 and thorn-like. A line of purple brown ran along the lower 
 part of each side, bordered on the lower edge with yellow. 
 The hinder prop feet were a dark brown ; the eight middle 
 
THE SATURNIA IO. 
 
 87 
 
 feet purplish, with a brown finish at the bottom. The three 
 pairs of true feet were purple. The head was green like the 
 body, while the mouth was purple like the feet. The first 
 ring was so completely covered with spines as to hide his head 
 
 FIG. 44. 
 
 entirely when bent forward, as they usually were. There 
 were six sets of these stars on each ring, except the last two 
 (and five on each of those), and on the first four rings, which 
 have on each side an extra cluster very low down. 
 
 These spines are very stiff, and remind one of porcupine 
 
88 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 quills. The purple-brown line along the* side, which begins 
 at the fourth ring, bends down to the hinder prop-foot, leav- 
 ing five clusters on the last ring. On each side of every ring 
 is an oblong vertical breathing hole (spiracle), as in nearly all 
 larvae ; for though these differ in number and some other re- 
 spects in different caterpillars, yet their arrangement is uni- 
 formly symmetrical, and usually each segment is furnished 
 with a pair. Examined with a microscope, this spiracle has 
 first a vertical white center line, around which is an oval of 
 brown, and this again bordered by an outside oval of jet black. 
 He looked like a moving strip of star moss. He refused 
 clover, dogwood, and elm, all. of which they are said to like, 
 probably because when taken he was about ready to become a 
 chrysalid. There are in each star about thirty spines. Three 
 shorter ones usually in the center, a second circle about these 
 three, and again a third, which are still longer. Some of the 
 spines, especially in front, are not tipped with purple, but end 
 in delicate long hairs. While really pretty, they are a formid- 
 able looking caterpillar, and the sting of the spine is said to 
 be as severe as that of a nettle. So curious a caterpillar was 
 not difficult to be found described, and I soon learned, if these 
 went safely through their changes, I should have the Saturnia 
 lo moths. In a very short time the three had spun their co- 
 coons and retired for a winter's sleep. Two of them seemed 
 to strike up a close friendship at once. While the third went 
 
THE SATURNIA 10. 80 
 
 off to a corner of the box and spun his cocoon independently, 
 the other two worked closely side by 
 side, forming a twin cocoon, joined to- 
 gether entirely on one side, and looking 
 not unlike a double covered cradle. 
 This being a new departure (as in the 
 case of the Polyphemus cocoon, with- 
 out the leaves on the outside) only one 
 of the pair survived the experiment ! FIG. 46. 
 
 On the last day of winter (February 28, 1878) one of the 
 covered cradles opened, and a beautiful female moth came 
 out, just such an one as had made the bustling expedition 
 among the box of specimens in the fall. On the third of 
 March the single cocoon opened, and a male Saturnia lo 
 .appeared. It is of a deep Indian yellow, with the fore wings 
 obliquely marked with purplish red, and a number of spots 
 on each, close together, near the middle of the wing, which 
 have been thought to resemble the letters A II, and which, 
 with a little help of the imagination, do look more like those 
 letters than any thing else. His mate is much darker, with 
 less of the yellow and more of the "brown and purple. In- 
 stead of the letters A H, there is a three-scalloped spot of 
 rich, deep brown, edged with gray. The head is a rich snuff- 
 brown, very velvety, and the handsome, velvety feet are of 
 
90 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 FIG. 47. 
 
 the same rich color. The other half of the double cocoon 
 remained unopened. 
 
 After writing the ahove, it was my curious good fortune to 
 find seven of these large caterpillars on one blade of Indian 
 corn. There was not another to be found in the small field, 
 and how these had chanced to congregate in such camp- 
 meeting array was a mystery. They are " processionary " 
 caterpillars, and although I had read this, I should not have 
 realized it but for the curious sight which having so many at 
 once afforded me. After they had been put under a large 
 glass, it was a new and amusing sight to watch them march 
 around one lengthened, mossy line of green, all touching 
 one another and walking as fast as if quite alone. They 
 preferred the green leaves of the corn to any others 
 which they are said to like and will eat. One after another 
 they made their seven cocoons, and lay through the winter 
 just passed, side by side, a little hamlet of sleepers houses 
 
THE SATURNIA 10. 91 
 
 so still and apparently unoccupied as to have suggested a 
 u Deserted Village, " but whose occupants I knew were only 
 waiting to surprise me on some coming spring morning with 
 a regular Chestnut Street parade. 
 
 And the spring opening has come. Three of the sleepers- 
 have left their black, moveless, chrysalid homes. One has- 
 lived his little life, and two rich, brown, and purple ones are 
 in a box near me (March 31, 1879). One of them has just 
 made a pretty picture by flying upon a fresh, light-green 
 blade of Indian corn (planted in my room expressly for their 
 pleasure), almost, but not quite, too frail, in its own forced and 
 tender growth, to support his swinging and fluttering little 
 body. The corn was not for them to eat, as these moths may 
 be classed among the tongueless ones, nor could they get any 
 good from the green blades, had they ever so long a tongue* 
 But if it were June, and they were in the corn-field, there 
 they would deposit their eggs for the future star-moss cater- 
 pillars more than two dozen of which, rather large, and of 
 a clear, golden yellow, are now in a box, with a leaf of the 
 corn for any possible coming need. 
 
 The pupa is black throughout, so that there is no change 
 in it to indicate the coming of the moth, as is the case in so 
 many of the brown or other lighter colored pupae. The rings, 
 however, become a little wider apart, and the spaces a little 
 clearer, perhaps, between them. The end of the pupa r 
 opposite the head, when looked at with a microscope, is- 
 
92 
 
 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 drawn in a little curiously, reminding oae of the peculiarly 
 pretty bud of the laurel blossom. 
 
 Another cocoon has since opened (April 10, 1879), and a 
 beautiful lemon-yellow and variegated male lo has shaken 
 out his beautiful wings, handsomer in his light spring suit 
 than any of the others. 
 
SILVER GRA7. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 SILVER GRAY. 
 
 STANDING on the heart of a blush rose, with his richly- 
 shaded, silvery wings fluttering over its soft petals, my 
 Quinquemaculatum moth makes a fine picture. His wings are 
 spread just enough to show five orange spots encircled with 
 black, which ornament each side of his body and give him 
 his name. But the back of his head, between the shoulders, 
 is his chief beauty. It is a rich, soft gray, curiously and 
 regularly watered with black and white wavy lines. Of his 
 six legs the last two pair are branched with three delicate 
 spines. The eyes are very large and velvety black. The an- 
 tennae are not feathered, as are those of the Polyphemus 
 moth, but many-jointed, tubular, and finely-pointed at the tip. 
 
 These antennae are about an inch in length, and usually 
 lie back close to the side of the body, seeming to form a 
 corded edge to the upper wings, the points lying just under 
 the wing. You would at first say he had no antennas ; but 
 watch him a little, and they will soon be very apparent. The 
 tongue is four or five inches in length, but when coiled, looks 
 like a small wheel set between two feathery side pieces. 
 
INSECT LIVES. 
 
SILVER GRAY. 95 
 
 When freed from his chrysalis, his first care seemed to be 
 for this long, slender tongue, which had been so specially 
 cared for, during the chrysalis state, in its curious, pitcher- 
 handle sheath. He unrolled and shook it again and again, 
 curling and smoothing it as a child would a dandelion stem, 
 and then reaching up, touched the top of the glass box 
 (quite a high one) several times. Then he coiled it up 
 quickly, and that was the last seen of his long tongue, ex- 
 cept the hint of it in wheel form. Although tempted by 
 fragrant flowers and sugared moss, he would not be induced 
 to uncoil it again. A " greater green orchis," with its im- 
 mensely long nectary of sweets, would no doubt have given 
 him an opportunity to satisfy his hunger in a becoming 
 manner ; but no such flower was at hand, and scorning to 
 use so remarkable an organ upon any ordinary repast, he 
 quietly became a martyr to his sense of propriety, and died 
 from hunger in the midst of plenty. And what is this dainty 
 creature ; or, rather, what was he ? You will exclaim when 
 I tell you he was the revolting-looking, large, green tomato 
 worm. 
 
 FIG. 49. 
 
96 INSECT LIVES. 
 
 Snappish and really dangerous in that form requiring to- 
 be taken with great care the change in his disposition 
 seems as great as that in his external appearance. Although 
 he does not equal the Polyphemus in gentleness (and I have 
 seen no moth that does), still he is timid and quiet; although 
 I fancy when touched there is a trace of the original disposi- 
 tion in the short, quick flutter he gives in response. It has 
 not been an easy matter to secure this moth. It is a sphinx, 
 and like all this class the caterpillar buries itself in the earth 
 to go into the chrysalis form. Several large specimens of the 
 tomato worm were caged in boxes, upon earth, and fed with 
 tomato leaves. In due time they all disappeared in the earth. 
 The same curiosity which leads children to take up seeds 
 once or twice to see if they have sprouted, led to several 
 attempts to see if these chrysalids were formed. Though 
 Nature can not be delayed, neither will she be hurried. 
 
 At length, all the earth being shaken from them, two large 
 well formed chrysalids appeared. These were allowed to lie 
 
 FIG. 50. 
 upon the earth all winter. They showed signs of life until 
 
SILVER GRAY. 97 
 
 March, when they shriveled a little, and would no longer 
 move when touched. They are now " hardened cases," with 
 no hope of change. 
 
 This was too great a dissappointraent to bear without some 
 attempt at remedy, and the thought was suggested of dig- 
 ging where last year's tomatoes had grown, to see if any un- 
 watched ones had survived. The gardener soon brought two 
 fine chrysalids to light. They were laid on boxes of earth 
 in the empty glass case which the others had occupied, and 
 Silver Gray broke the bands of one of these yesterday. The 
 large moth made its exit at the usual place between the 
 shoulders, leaving a mere parted line in the almost un- 
 broken chrysalis. Even the long tongue-sheath was not 
 broken or loosened from the breast. These two chrysalids 
 were alike. The first two differed only in the tongue-case, 
 one having the pitcher-handled case, as in the engraving, 
 while the other had two short, straight cases, side by side. 
 
 What may we not believe possible in transformation, when 
 we see the forbidding tomato worm, after a dark underground 
 existence, come out into the silvery beauty of the Quinque- 
 maculatum ? 
 
 Shall we fear " the dark prison of a tomb," since the same 
 power that opens the chrysalis rolls the stone from the long 
 sealed sepulchre ? 
 
 FINIS.