PAONIAS ASTYLUS 



GENUS. PAO'NIAS. 



SPECIES, as'tylus (a scer ainong the centaurs : inappropriate). 



This is the gem of the genus, and once seen the cater- 

 pillar cannot be forgotten, because of its beauty and 

 its wonderful resemblance to its food-plant. 



We found our first one " up the Lane," a very favor- 

 ite and productive walk of ours. It was late Sep- 

 tember, and the blueberry-bushes were gorgeous in red 

 and green, with the double-pointed leaf-buds formed 

 for the next year. On one of these bright bushes we 

 found — and we have never been able to tell who saw 

 it first — a caterpillar about two inches long and of 

 exactly the bright red and green of the leaves. No 

 jewel ever seemed more precious. We boxed it most 

 carefully and searched every bush in the neighbor- 

 hood, but found no more then. Later we searched a 

 berry-pasture and found two more, one stung in many 

 places and useless to us. 



No book gave us any help ; for this was many years 

 ago, and loss was known about the larvae of many 

 moths than is known now. 



We fed the two well, and they pupated finely ; but 

 one filled with fungus, and the other gave parasitic 

 flies in the following spring, so we were no better off 

 for means of learning the name of the species. For 



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