The Life-History and Anatomy of Moths 
Bismarck Archipelago and the island of Burn. When., a few 
years ago, I communicated a specimen of this strange little moth to 
Sir George F. Hampson, he suggested that a trick had been played 
and that the head of a butterfly (a skipper) had been affixed to 
the body of a moth, but such was not the case, as a considerable 
series of specimens in my possession showed. The incident 
reveals that in classification hard and fast lines, based upon the 
character of a single organ, can not be always adhered to. There 
is scarcely any generalization in reference to organic structures 
which students have made which has not been found with the 
increase of knowledge to have its limitations. While all this is 
true, it is nevertheless also true that, so far as the lepidoptera of 
the United States and the countries of British North America are 
concerned, the old distinction between the two suborders, based 
upon the form of the antennae, holds good, with the sole excep¬ 
tion of the insects belonging to the genus Megathymus , which 
are by many authors classified with the Castniidce, and by others 
with the Hesperiidce. In the “ Butterfly Book ” I have left these 
insects with the Hesperiidce. Leaving them out of sight, we may 
say that all lepidoptera found in the region with which this book 
deals, and which do not possess clubbed antennae, are moths. 
The easiest way for the beginner who lives in the United States, 
or Canada, to ascertain whether the insect before him is a moth, 
is to first familiarize himself with the structure of the antennae of 
butterflies, and then by comparison to refer the specimens before 
him to their proper suborder. 
Moths undergo metamorphoses analogous to those through 
which butterflies pass. They exist first in the embryonic form 
as eggs. When the eggs hatch the insects appear as larvae, or 
caterpillars. They are then, after undergoing a series of molts, 
transformed into pupae, or chrysalids, which may be naked, or 
may be provided with an outer covering, known as the cocoon, 
which is more or less composed of silk. After remaining for 
some time in the pupal state, they appear as perfect four-winged, 
six-footed insects. 
THE EGGS OF MOTHS 
The eggs of moths, like those of butterflies, consist of a shell 
containing the embryo and the liquid food upon which it subsists 
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