3.5 



ON SOME OF OUR COMMON INSECTS. 



BY W. .SAUNDERS, LONDON, ONTARIO. 



The Luna Moth {Actias lima, Linn). 



In our Report last year, there was an interesting article on this beautiful insect, by 

 Mr. R. V. Rogers, of Kingston, Ontario. At the time that appeared, we were unable to 

 supply an illustration of the moth, but lately wo have succeeded in obtaining a very beau- 

 tiful one, drawn and engraved expressly for our pages. 



Fig. 3. This moth (Fig. 



3) measures when its 

 wings are spread 

 from 4| to .5^ inches. 

 The wings are of a 

 delicate green colour, 

 thickly covered with 

 pale hairs as they 

 approach the body. 

 There is a purplish 

 Ijrown 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 b|ordered with 

 purplish brown. 



The head is 



white while the beautifully pectinated antenna' 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 already mentioned. The legs are purplish brown. 



This lovely creature is not at all common in the neighbourhood of London ; 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. 



