122 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [12:3— Mch., 1916 



together too much space. To remember this fact in regard to 

 the antennae, however, I must tell an interesting story about 

 Dahlia hesperioides, — a rare lepidopterid from the islands of Bum, 

 of the Bismarck Archipelago. A specimen of this queer little 

 "moth" was sent by Doctor Holland to the distinquished en- 

 tomologist, Sir Geo. F. Hampton, and the latter declared that 

 he was playing a trick upon him, in as much as the specimen 

 showed that it was nothing more than some small moth with 

 the head of a butterfly (a Skipper) attached to it! Sir George 

 knows better now, for Doctor Holland has a fine series of that 

 particular little insect in his private collection. These Buru 

 specimens are small moths with clubbed antennas, being one of 

 the links connecting moths and butterflies. 



One of our handsomest as well as largest moths is the Amer- 

 ican Silk-worm or Polyphemus moth. Its caterpillar is a beau- 

 tiful animal of a fine shade of pale green, with silvery white lines 

 raised on the sides of its body. I have bred the moth from these 

 caterpillars a good many times, and I expect to do so quite fre- 

 quently again. Last year — or the year before — I found an ex- 

 ceptionally large caterpillar of this species walking up the trunk 

 of a big elm tree, upon the leaves of which it feeds, as it does 

 upon the leaves of a good many different trees in country dis- 

 tricts, parks and streets, where they grow. I took this cater- 

 pillar and placed it in a small box with a few elm and maple 

 leaves, and in a very short time it spun its cocoon. The latter 

 is shown in Figure 15, near the pine cone. It is empty now, 

 for the handsome Polyphemus moth seen just below it emerged 

 from it the following summer. The specimen is a female, for 

 it has the big, feathery antenna, these latter being very nar- 

 row, hair-like, and scantily feathered along their outer border 

 in the male. This renders it easy to distinguish the sexes of 

 this New World moth. Telea, or the genus to which this ele- 

 gant representative belongs, contains but two or three species, 

 all of which vary considerably — a variance that has often mis- 

 led entomologists with respect to the real number of species in 

 existence. Curiously enough, we also meet with fine albino as 

 well as melanic examples of this species— the first having but 

 little or no color anywhere, while the latter have the upper sides 

 of the wings nearly entirely black. It has never been my for- 

 tune to meet with either of these rarities, or you may be sure I 

 would have published photographs of them long ago. 



