THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 33 



THE LUNA MOTH— Acims luna Linn. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



In No. 8, Vol. 7 of our journal, there is an interesting article on this 

 beautiful insect by Mr. R. V. Rogers, of Kingston, Ontario. When that 

 appeared we were unable to supply an illustration of the moth, but lately 

 we have succeeded in obtaining a very beautiful one drawn and engraved 

 expressly for our pages. 



This moth (Fig i) measures when its wings are spread from 4^ to 

 53^ inches. The wings are of a delicate green color, thickly covered 

 with pale hilirs as they approach the body. There is a purplish brown 

 stripe along the front margin of the fore wings, which stretches also across 

 the thorax, while a small branch of the same is extended to the eye spot 

 near the middle of the wing. The eye spots are transparent in' the middle 

 and margined with rings of white, yellow, blue and black. The hinder 

 edges of the wings are bordered with purplish brown. 



The head is white, while the beautifully pectinated antennae are of a 

 brownish tinge. The thorax and abdomen are whitish or greenish white, 

 thickly clothed with a woolly down, the former crossed by the purplish 

 brown stripe alrea'dy mentioned. The legs are purplish brown. 



This lovely creature is not at all common in the neighborhood of Lon- 

 don ; indeed it can scarcely be called common anywhere in Ontario, 

 although it is very widely and generally distributed. Seldom a season 

 passes without some being captured in our midst, and occasionally we 

 have had them fly in at the windows at night, attracted apparently by the 

 light. 



The larva, which is of a bluish green color, feeds on Hickory, Walnut, 

 Butternut, and sometimes on Beech and Oak, and closely resembles that 

 of polypheinus, from which it may be distinguished by its having a pale 

 yellow lateral stripe, bands of the same between the segments, and a 

 brown V-shaped mark on the terminal segment. 



For fuller details we refer our readers to Mr. Rogers' excellent 

 paper. 



