COCOON, PUPA, AND MOTH 25 



Much has been written by persons who seem to thmk 

 that nature is not interesting enough as it exists and 

 that they can improve it by inventing "sweet and 

 touching incidents" about the "unerring instinct" 

 and the "mother-love" of moths, which cause them to 

 choose for laying their eggs only such places as will be 

 suitable for the young caterpillars to live in, and much 

 emphasis has been laid on the care with which these 

 motherly moths fasten their eggs securely in these 

 suitable places. It all sounds very fine until one 

 knows that the unmated moth is just as careful in lay- 

 ing her unfertilized eggs which can never give any 

 caterpillars, and that mated moths often lay their eggs 

 on plants whose leaves the caterpillars will not eat 

 even if starving, and sometimes on stone posts, blinds, 

 window-shades, fences, and other things not at all suit- 

 able for food for caterpillars. Observation will con- 

 vince any one that egg-laying is not a matter of 

 volition on the part of the moth, but a function which 

 she must perform when the eggs are ready to be laid, 

 and that by the time her eggs are all laid — often be- 

 fore all are laid — the moth dies, having never seen 

 one of her offspring. It is therefore arrant nonsense 

 to talk of the " mother-love " of a moth. 



The moth, like the caterpillar, is made up of three 

 sections, the head, the thorax, and the abdomen, with 

 their appendages. The head carries the antennae, or 

 feelers, which contain the organs of smell and touch 

 and often those of hearing. It has also the mouth- 

 parts, which may be completely developed or only 

 partly so. If the moth feeds it has a tongue, some- 

 times three inches long, which it thrusts into flowers, 



