The Life- History and Anatomy of Moths 



moths in temperate regions oviposit in the spring or 

 summer, and the eggs hatch shortly afterward. 



early 



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 

 Ichneumonidcv. Certain Phycids and Noctuids feed upon scale- 

 insects, in the same way in which the larva of the butterfly 

 known as Feiiiseca 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 o<* somites, anterior to which is the 

 head. 



