The Life-History and Anatomy of Moths 



Bismarck Archipelago and the island of Buru. 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 ail 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 



4 



