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ON SOME OF OUR COMMON INSECTS. 



By E. V. Rogers, Kingston, Ont. 



The Luna Moth (Jdias luna, Linn.) 



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 connections 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 pro- 

 faiium 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 accom- 

 plished, it lays itself dpwn that its body may mingle again with its parent dust. 



The eggs, which are more than one hundred in number, are of a daijlc brown or choco- 

 late colour, smooth and .005 of an inch in length ; the sides are flattened and of a lighter 

 shade. In a fortnight the little larvx begin to appear, making their escape into the 

 outer world by eating an oval opening in the end of the shell. Now one can see that the 

 inner surface of the egg is perfectly while. The little wriggling caterpillar.^^, when they 

 first emerge, are about .02 of an inch in length, and exhibit a black head, greenish on top 

 and yellowish in front ; a body black, adorned with two yellow spots on each segment, 

 and decorated with numerous yellow hairs ; the under part of the body and feet are of a 

 light yellow. Some crawl about with the empty shell on their tails, others carry it as an 

 umbrella over their heads, but the majority seem to discard it at once, as their human 

 superiors do a friend from whom nothing more is to be expected. Some that I attempted 

 to bring up by the hand, without the assistance of that most careful of mothers. Dame 

 Nature, had in a week grown over a third of an inch in length, and showed the warts 

 crowned with little hairs on each segment. In ten days they began to change their skin, 

 having eaten so much that their first clothes had become too tight for them. Now they 

 showed a head and body of light green, with yellow knobs on each segment : the hairy 

 appendages were not so numerous or distinct as before, and a few of those on the front 

 segments were dark. In a fortnight from its birth the largest one was nearly half an 

 inch long, and when they had been in the land of the living for a month they were nearly 

 an inch iti length. When fully grown the head of the caterpillar is nearly elliptical in 

 shape, and of a pearl colour ; the rest is of a delicate pale au<l very clear bluish-green 

 colour. 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 ring.s, by narrow transverse lines of the same colour. After the manner of its kith 

 and kin, each segment is adorned with small i)early 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. 



When at rest, this magnificent caterpillar (which, by the way, is very similar to that 

 of its congener, Tilni polt/phemu.-t, save that the latter is destitute of the lateral yellow 

 stripe, and the bands between the segments, the tail being bordered by a brown V-shaped 

 mark) is nearly as thick as a man's thumb; its rings being bunched and body shortened, 

 the length is only about two inches, but when it sets out on its travels, it stretches itself 



