Clje Canadian Entomologist. 



VOL. VII. LONDON, ONT., AUGUST, 1875. No. 8 



ON SOME OF OUR COMMON INSECTS. 



THE LUNA MOTH—Actias luna Linn. 



BY R. V. ROGERS, KINGSTON, ONT. 



If any of the insect host is a proof of high art in nature, and of the 

 beauty of the Creator's thoughts, it is most assuredly the fair creature 

 whose name is mentioned above. Allied to families whose members are 

 among the greatest of the insect world, and having cousins and connec- 

 tions surpassing in size and beauty all others of their kingdom in this 

 Dominion, still this moth is as pre-eminent above its fellows as is its 

 namesake — the fair empress of the sky — above the lesser lights that rule 

 the night. 



So conspicuous is the Luna in her royal robes that she has a right to 

 feel slighted at being thus long almost unnoticed in the pages of the 

 Entomologist, and now it is hard upon her to be described among 

 " Some of our Common Insects \ ' : but blue blood always tells, and 

 queenly grace and beauty will ever distinguish the Luna from among the 

 profanum vulgus of the Articulata. 



And now for a biographical sketch of this beauty from the cradle to 

 the grave, and beyond that, after it assumes the resurrection attire, to that 

 day when, its work accomplished, it lays itself down that its body may 

 mingle again with its parent dust. 



The head of the caterpillar is nearly elliptical in shape, and of a pearl 

 color ; the rest is of a delicate pale and very clear bluish-green color. A 

 very pale yellow stripe extends along each side of the body, from the first 

 to the tenth segment, just below the line of the spiracles ; and the back 

 is crossed, between the rings, by narrow transverse lines of the same 

 color. After the manner of its kith and kin, each segment is adorned 

 with small pearly warts — tinged with purple — five or six in number, each 

 furnished with a few little hairs. At the end of the tail are three brown 

 spots, edged above with yellow. 



