INSECTS IN THEIR RELATION TO FORESTRY 



1223 



the "Hickory Horn-devil," and generally destroy it upon 

 discovery. It has an average length of some five and a 

 half inches, and is the largest caterpillar in our insect 

 fauna. It does not spin a cocoon, as many other large 

 caterpillars do ; on the other hand, sometime in Sep- 

 tember, it works its way under ground, there to be 



FiK 2 MALE RKGAL MOTH, VIEWED FROM ABOVE. SPECIMEN IN THE COLLECTION OF 

 THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. THE DARK BROWN PUPA IS SHOWN TO THE 

 LEFT. BOTH REDUCED ABOUT ONE-THIRD. 



Here is an instance in the insect world where the male of the species is conspicuously smaller than its 



mate (see Fig. 3). 



transformed into the pupa here shown in Figure 2, from 

 which it emerges during the following July as an elegant 

 orange-red moth, with the dainty white and yellow mark- 

 ings here seen in Figures 2 and 3. 



This caterpillar feeds upon the leaves of the butternut, 

 hickory, persimmon, sumach (Rims), sycamore, and 

 walnut trees. Of the last-named 

 we have a victim in Figure 4. 

 This moth is rare in the North 

 and nowhere abundant ; while in 

 the State of Georgia it is said to 

 be double-brooded. In this 

 genus atheroma we have at 

 least two more species of these 

 big moths, namely the "Pine- 

 devil moth" (C. sepulchralis) 

 and the Mexican Walnut moth 

 (C. mexicana). Of the former 

 Doctor Holland says : "It ranges 

 from the Carolinas northward 

 to Massachusetts along the coast. 

 It is not common in the valley 

 of the Potomac ; and at Berkeley 

 Springs I have found it abund- 

 ant in the larval state in the 

 months of July and August." 

 The third species is found in 

 Arizona and northwestern Mex- 

 ico. To rear and study this elegant moth — indeed, any 

 of our large moths — one has but to place the larvJe or 

 caterpillars in a large and thoroughly clean pine box con- 

 taining about a foot or more of soft, dark soil. The top 

 should have a fine wire-mesh cover that can be readily 

 removed. Fresh leaves of the sycamore or other trees 

 mentioned above should be fed to them every day and 



the unconsumed ones removed. After all the larvae have 

 disappeared under ground, the box may be kept in a 

 dry and moderately warm room until the following sum- 

 mer, when your moths will be forthcoming — and what 

 superb creatures they are upon emergence ! 



Butterfly larvae, of a great many species, genera, and 

 families, also feed upon the 

 leaves of various trees of the 

 forest, and among them we find 

 not a few representatives of the 

 genus Papilio, which is a truly 

 gorgeous assemblage of forms ; 

 they may be reared from their 

 chrysalids in the manner recom- 

 mended in the last paragraph in 

 the case of moths. 



A few miles west of Washing- 

 ton, along the old Georgetown 

 Canal, is a great place to meet 

 with the Ajax Swallowtail — a 

 butterfly of extreme beauty (Fig- 

 ures 5 and 6). There is a good 

 reason for finding the insect in 

 that locality, as in the marshy area between the tow- 

 path and the Potomac flourish many Papaw trees 

 (Asimina triloba), and it is upon the leaves of these 

 that the caterpillars of the various forms of this butter- 

 fly feed. On one occasion, in this locality, the writer 

 captured three of these lovely butterflies with one sweep 



Fig. 3. A PERFECT SPECIMEN OF A FE.MALE OF OUR REGAL WALNUT MOTH; NATURAL SIZE, 



AND VIEWED FROM ABOVE 



This 



ell shows how carefully these moths are mounted in our great collection in the National Museum. 

 In coloration, this is a very striking species, hence its name, "Regal." 



of the net, as they rested on the mud within a few feet of 

 the Potomac. Upon reversing the net, two were taken 

 and one escaped. Doctor Holland gives us a beautiful 

 colored plate of these zebra butterflies in his "Butterfly 

 Book," upon which five different subspecies of ajax are 

 shown, as well as Papilio eurymeda of the same group, 

 the one shown in Figure 5 of the present article being 



