1911] The Ottawa Naturalist. 81 



close range and finally almost touched it with the hand without 

 its flying. The following morning the owls were all gone. We 

 worked the thickets well for them but without finding a single 

 bird. With them disappeared a number of Long and Short- 

 eared Owls that were haunting the same localities the day pre- 

 vious and which we strongly suspected were to blame for the 

 death of the two or three little owls whose remains we ran across 

 in the course of our rambles. 



POPULAR ENTOMOLOGY. 



The Luna Moth. 



By Arthur|Gibson. 



Among the many kinds of beautiful insects which occur in 

 North America, there are none which attract more general atten- 

 tion, when seen for the first time, than the large moths known 

 popularly as Emperor Moths. Of these there are eight different 

 species which occur in Canada: all belong to the family 

 Saturniidas. The caterpillars of these moths, known as the giant 

 silkworms, are among the largest of the leaf-eating insects which 

 we have. The larvae are, of course, extremely voracious and, 

 during this stage in the life of these insects, devour manv times 

 their actual weight of food. None, however, are of much 

 economic importance, but where several occur on a small tree 

 their work soon denotes their presence, and, if it is desirable to 

 destroy them, hand-picking is the simplest remedy. Although 

 the caterpillars of these Emperor Moths are so voracious, the 

 moths themselves are unable to feed on account of their mouth 

 parts being aborted. 



The Luna Moth, Tropxa luna, which is figured on the next 

 page, has most appropriately been styled "fair empress of the 

 night" and "queen of the night." It was first described by 

 Linnaeus, in Systema Naturae, in the year 1758, so has long been 

 known to naturalists. It is indeed one of the most beautiful of 

 all insects. The four wings are of a delicate green colour, the 

 two front ones being bordered along the upper edge with purple, 

 or purplish-brown, which colour also extends across the thorax 

 near the head. The head, rest of the thorax, and abdomen is 

 white, or pale greenish-white. The eye-like spot towards the 

 middle of each wing is transparent in the centre and bordered 

 with lines of white, pale purple, yellow and black on one side, 

 and dark purple (or red), yellow, blue and black on the other 

 side. The eye-like spot on each of the front wings is joined by a 



