1 24 Life and Immortality. 



thorax is white, occasionally yellowish or greenish, and 

 coursed by the purple-brown stripe that traverses the entire 

 length of the upper edge of the wings; and the abdomen, 

 similarly colored, and clothed with white, wool-like hairs. 

 The head is small and white, and furnished with broad, flat 

 and strongly pectinated antennae, which are very much wider 

 in the male. The legs are purple-brown, and poorly adapted 

 for walking, but this defect is largely compensated for in the 

 wide stretch of wings, that fit their possessor for powerful 

 and long-sustained flight. 



Such is Luna in her various transformations. Notwith- 

 standing her great size and almost matchless loveliness, her 

 habits are not proportionally noteworthy. The gift of 

 superior beauty, in the insect as in the mammalian world, 

 does not often carry with it a high order of intelligence. It 

 is true the young Luna knows pretty well the secret of dis- 

 sembling. How quickly she perceives the approach of an 

 enemy ! And she knows how to deal with him, but her little 

 trick of simulating death, or an immobile twig, does not 

 always succeed with the wily spider, or artful ichneumon. 

 That she is a tolerably good connoisseur of the character of 

 foods, there can be no question. You cannot deceive her. 

 Take from her the foods her ancestors have used for cen- 

 turies untold, and substitute others she knows nothing about, 

 and she is at once cognizant of the change. However 

 hungry she may be, and in her early growing years she is 

 ever a voracious feeder, she will starve rather than eat what 

 the unwritten law of her race has strictly interdicted. I have 

 known cases where death has ensued, or the caterpillar has 

 pupated earlier than usual, when alien food has been given 

 it to eat. But in the beginning of life, just after the first 

 skin-moulting has been effected, ere the little creature has 

 attained its seventh day of age, no trouble is experienced in 

 changing the food, almost anything edible in the plant-line 

 being eaten, though some things with a more decided relish 

 than others. In the matter of cocoon-weaving, where the 



