The Life-History and Anatomy of Moths 
moths in temperate regions oviposit in the spring or early 
summer, and the eggs hatch shortly afterward. 
THE CATERPILLARS OF MOTHS 
The caterpillars of moths are of course extremely small when 
they first emerge from the egg. They, however, rapidly increase 
in relative size as they continue the process of feeding and 
molting, and in the case of some of the larger species become 
to the ignorant and uninformed even formidable in appear¬ 
ance. The larva of the Royal Walnut-moth, or “Hickory Horn- 
Devil, ” as it is sometimes called, is a striking object. (See Plate 
I, Fig. 4.) Specimens six and seven inches in length are not at 
all uncommon. With its curved horns and numeruos spines it 
presents to the uninitiated a truly repellent aspect. 
The larvae of the Heterocera, like those of the Rhopalocera, are 
principally phytophagous, that is to say, they feed upon vege¬ 
table matter. The food of the vast majority consists of the leaves 
of grasses, shrubs, and trees. A few larvae feed upon woody 
tissues, and bore long galleries under the bark or in the wood 
of trees. Others feed upon the pith of herbaceous plants. A 
number of species feed upon the inside of growing fruits. Only 
a very few species are known to be carnivorous. In Australia 
there occurs a Galleriid moth, the larva of which burrows into 
the fatty tissues of one of the great wood-boring caterpillars of 
the region, and preys upon it somewhat as is done by the great 
family of parasitic Hymenoptera, known to scientific men as the 
Ichneumonidce. Certain Phycids and Noctuids feed upon scale- 
insects, in the same way in which the larva of the butterfly 
known as Feniseca tarquinius feeds upon the same class of in¬ 
sects. Among the Tineidce there are certain species which, as 
is well known, feed upon hair and on horn. Every house¬ 
wife is more or less acquainted with the ravages committed by 
the destructive larvae of the clothes-moth. 
There is considerable variety in the form of heterocerous 
larvae, and still greater variety in the manner in which their 
bodies are adorned by various growths and colors. The body, 
as is the case with the larvae of the Rhopalocera, is composed 
normally of thirteen rings or somites, anterior to which is the 
head. 
6 
