The Moths and Butterflies 



3 6 7 



etc., but never showing the characteristic swollen-tipped or clubbed con- 

 dition of the butterflies. The moths, too, are mostly night or twilight flyers, 

 while the butterflies go abroad in sunlight only. Scientific students of Lepi- 

 doptera do not give the butterflies a classific value equivalent to that of the 

 moths taken altogether, but rather rank them as a group more nearly equiva- 

 lent to a single superfamily of moths, as, for example, the superfamily Satur- 

 niina, which includes all our great silkworm-moths, Cecropia, Luna, Prome- 

 thea, Polyphemus, etc., etc. However, the more familiar and readily made 

 subdivision of the order into moths and butterflies is more convenient and 



FIG. 523. Moth and cocoon cut open to show pupa of Samia cecropia. (After Lugger; 



slightly reduced.) 



quite as informing for our purpose, so we shall adopt it, taking up the moths 

 first, as including the more generalized members of the order. There are many 

 more moth than butterfly families the numbers represented in this country being 

 44 to 5. By reference to the following key adapted from Comstock alrrost any 

 North American moth can be traced to its proper family. 



KEY TO THE SUPERFAMILIES AND FAMILIES OF MOTHS. 



This key does not include a few of the smaller families whose members are very few 

 and are rarely taken by collectors. Some of these moths are, however, referred to in 



