MOTHS AND MOTH-CATCHERS. 247 



elder branch of the great natural group of scaly-winged insects, or 

 Lepidoptera, to which both belong. The butterflies are less numerous 

 in species, or kinds, and more uniform in habit and appearance. These 

 gaudy and papery- winged day-flies have their own attractions and pre- 

 sent their own scientific problems, but in number, diversity, soft and 

 delicate colors, and patterns and unexpected modes of life, they can 

 not hold a candle, to speak both figuratively and appositely, to the 

 foolish but lovely moths. 



First, let us assure ourselves that by moths we do not mean clothes- 

 moths. These terrors to the housekeeper are only of two or three 

 kinds, and of small size, belonging to the genera Tinea and Tineola; 

 while there are over seven thousand species of North American moths 

 already in our catalogues, from the large and gorgeous "Regal Moth" 

 ( Citheronia regalis) to the "Tiny Gem" (Lithariapteryx) , of all shades 

 of color from gray to pink, from black to yellow, all innocent of carpet- 

 or clothes-eating in their young larval days. To some general state- 

 ments as to these, the methods of hunting and preserving them, and 

 those who carry on the fascinating pursuit, I claim the reader's indul- 

 gence for a few pages of what I shall try to make easy and instructive 

 reading. 



It is, perhaps, unnecessary to state that moths, like plants, bear, 

 each kind, a particular double Latin or Latinized title, as Actias lima, 

 the " American Moon-Moth," or " Queen of the Night." The first 

 name is that of the genus, the second of the species. The genus is 

 founded on certain particular points of structure, and usually em- 

 braces a number of kinds or species which share in these particular 

 structural features. While the genus Actias, for instance, is known 

 by its thinly scaled, pale-green wings, the hind pair furnished with 

 twisted " tails," our species lima differs from a number of Asiatic and 

 African species by certain marks and peculiarities of pattern and size. 



These Latin names are a source of some difficulty to lay readers 

 and to many amateurs. Some people prefer English names by which 

 to designate their specimens, but our species have not been known for 

 years, as have the European moths ; consequently very few have re- 

 ceived vernacular names. The " cotton- worm " (Aletia argillacea), 

 and the " army- worm " (Heliophila unipiincta), are, indeed, two 

 species of moths well known for their ravages in the larval state, and 

 which are consequently provided with vernacular names by which they 

 are distinguished. But we have no English names for the great ma- 

 jority of species, which are really different in kind from their trans- 

 atlantic brethren. 



The introduction of common names for our moths is evidently a 

 matter not to be forced, but to be left to itself. The rule of priority, 

 which Linnaeus appointed to govern the Latin names, can not obtain 

 here. Some of our butterflies have received several English names, as 

 the common "milk- weed butterfly." Some of the names for moths in 



