128 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



the moth with head and legs projecting, endeavoring in vain to escape from 

 its prison. To prove also that no air is needed from outside for the proj)er 

 development of the moth, he carefully covered cocoons so as to make them 

 air-tight and kept them so covered all winter without in the least affecting 

 the exit of the moth. 



The moth (Fig. 50 ^ ; Fig. 51 ?) is of a dull ochre-j-ellow, shaded more 

 or less distinctly with innumerable black particles and with a broad gray 

 band along the front, or costal edge, and JDassing over the thorax. There 

 is a darker, reddish-brown shade across the middle of the wings, and near 

 this shade on each wing is a transjjarent eye-like spot, divided by a slender 

 opaque line, and margined by a yellow and a black ring, the last much 

 broader on the hind than on the front wings, being there Avidened on the 

 inside into a large black spot with the part adjoining the eye-spot bluish- 

 white. Near the hind margin of each wing is a dusky band, (bluish on the 

 front ones) edged with pink-white behind; and near the base of the front 

 wings is a zig-zag crimson line, edged inside with white. There is great var- 

 iation in the colors of this insect, dependent in some measure no doubt on the 

 food of the larva; and it is a wonder that some of them have not been de- 

 scribed as distinct species by those who consider Callosamia angulifera or 

 Samia Columbia good species. Specimens occur which have the general tint 

 either very dark or very pale; either brown, smoky-yellow, cream-color, 

 rust-red or greenish; while the large black spot on the hind wings is some- 

 times replaced by rust-i'ed. 



The male is easily distinguished from the female b}^ his smaller abdo- 

 men, and very broad antenna? which are, in fact, broader than represented 

 in ni}' tigure, as I have known them to spread nearly half an inch. The}' 

 have actual!}^ been mistaken for a third pair of wings by inexperienced per- 

 sons, and my friend, M. Provancher, gives the following amusing account of 

 such a mistake in the Naturaliste Canadien, which he edits : * 



. We must ?oo/i- in order to see; and in Natural History perhaps, more 

 • than in any other department of knowledge, we must know how to look, in 

 order not to bo deceived in our observations. One day one of our worth}' 

 neighbors came to call upon us with a very self satisfied air. "Oh, Sir," 

 says he, " I can show you — you who are so fond of rare things — an insect 

 such as 3'ou have certainly never seen." " Take care : my collection is 

 pretty large." " I Bave seen your collection and you have nothing like it. 

 It is a butterfly with six wings!" "A butterfly with six wings?" "Yes, 

 sir, with six Wings. Besides the four wings in the ordinary places, it h^s 

 two little ones in addition on its head. It has a bod}' as stout as that of a 

 middling sized mouse, and two large e}^es in its hind wings. All those to 

 whom I have shown it say they have never seen anything like it. But 

 what is most extraordinary about it is these little wings on its head. What 

 can be the use of them ?',' Eecognizing without trouble by means of this 

 description the insect that was referred to, we replied : " You know that 

 butterflies are travelers, or rather navigators, in the air. Ordinarily they 

 have only four wings, which, if you please, we may liken to the mainsails • 

 and topsails of our common sloops or cutters. Probably your butterfly, 

 having a longer voyagathan usual to make, has found it advantageous to 



• V.d. ], p. 1'. 



