188 
POPULAR SCIEITOE I^EWS. 
[December, 1891. 
PERSOXAL OBSERVATIONS BY MISS MAT- 
TIE WADSVVORTH, CHAPTER 535. 
(PRIZE ESSAT.) 
On the first day of May, the pioneer bumble- 
bee of the season announced by her joyful buzzing 
that spring had at last arrived, even in our cold 
Maine climate. At this season of the year we see 
but little of summer's green, and only the white 
birch and wild cherry can show tiny leaves. 
Early as it is, however, the tent caterpillars 
{Clisiocampa Americana') have emerged from their 
eggs with voracious appetites, and their delicate 
webs may be seen in great profusion on the wild 
cherry trees. They can now be easily destroyed, 
so on May 2 I collected and killed several thou- 
sand caterpillars, thereby winning the gratitude 
of the farmers near, for the apple trees are the 
second choice of these pests. On the fourth of 
May I found my old acquaintances Eiiryomia 
inda, flying noisily over the leaves in the woods, 
Calosoma calidum, with brilliant gold leaf inden- 
tations on the wing covers, the irridescent Cyhrus 
viduus, and many other predacious beetles. 
A cold time and a frost when the buds were 
swelling, almost, but not quite, injured the pros- 
pects for a good crop of cherries, and not until 
the 17th were the trees white with blossoms, to 
which were attracted bees, moths and our beauti- 
ful northern humming birds. On this day I saw 
a brilliant male oriole taking honey from the 
blossoms with evident satisfactiod. Perched on 
some twig, he would thrust his bill into every 
flower within reach, with great skill and rapidity. 
I watched him do this for an hour. 
On the 26th I captured the first dragon-fly, a 
Lihellula quadrumacnlata. While looking in the 
woods for plants, and insects on this date, I saw a 
small black wasp seize a gray spider three times 
her size, which she stung and rendered powerless, 
then proceeded to convey to her nest. Grasping 
the spider, sometimes by the first pair of legs, and 
again in some other manner, she made quite good 
progress backward over the sticks and other ob- 
stacles in the way, never turning out in the least 
to find an easier path. Once she left the spider, 
and during her absence an active ant attempted to 
confiscate it. On her return, they had quite a 
tussle before the ant was vanquished. Mrs. 
Wasp actually dragged the spider for two rods 
before her nest was reached, which feat proves 
that she possesses great strength. 
With the first of .June came beautifully warm 
and pleasant weather. For a collector of insects, 
this is the banner month of tlie year; butterflies 
are flying here and there, bees and moths are on 
the lilacs, and the air around my favorite hunting 
ground seems almost full of dragon-flies. Among 
these, Cordulia semiaquea is the most abundant, 
while the larger Didymops transversa and smaller 
Leucorhinia intacta may be seen in all directions. 
On the tenth of June I saw an amusing sight in 
the woods. A female partridge with very young 
chickens, startled by my appearance in the wood 
path near by, gave a note of warning to her young, 
then commenced to scramble awkwardly away. 
She acted as if a wing and leg were broken, would 
fall over repeatedly, shuffle sideways, and only 
just keep out of reach. It was evident she did 
this to call my attention from her young, but she 
was so cute about it I followed some distance, 
then retreated about a rod. She was lively enough 
then, and flew to the fence, clucking loudly. I 
could not then find one of the chickens. 
On the nth I found a beautiful male Polyphe- 
mus moth, just out from its cocoon, and not sufli- 
ciently developed to fly, so I brought it home in 
my net to further develop, then to meet the fate 
prepared for it — the chloroform tumbler. A few 
days later, a female of the same kind emerged 
from a cocoon in the house, also a Cecropia and 
several small moths. 
On the 15th I saw a young fox, apparently 
about one-tliird grown, in the pasture. It had 
patches of darker color than the full grown foxes, 
and was really very cunning. I tried to catch it, 
but could not run fast enough. Towards night I 
found a dead cuckoo by the side of the house, 
against which it had flown and broken its neck. 
We have known several instances of cuckoos 
being killed in this way. 
On the 24th of .Tune, while catching dragon- 
flies by the brook, and a visitor near me was fish- 
ing, we heard a slight noise on a stump about 
twelve feet away, and looking, saw a young wood- 
cliuck scr.ambling up the side of the stump. After 
several ineftectual attempts, it did reach the top, 
on which I had laid my sack. This it sniflied at 
with very evident disgust and soon dropped down 
again. On removing my sack, we saw beneath it 
quite a lot of strawberries, recently picked, some 
with long and some with short stems. From the 
appearance of the berries we thought no person 
had placed them there, tliough it was of course 
possible. If no one did, the question is, did the 
mother chuck place the berries there, and was 
this her dining table, on which she served the 
fruits and berries of the season? Her hole was 
beneath the stump. 
On .July 3d I saw a great quantity of ants cross- 
ing the road in a southerly direction. They were 
light-colored, about one-fifth of an inch in length, 
and seemed to be moving from one home to an- 
other, for many were carrying pupa, and others 
larva in various stages of growth. They pro- 
ceeded in an orderly manner, ten or twelve 
abreast, and there must have been thousands of 
them, for I watched some time, and all had not 
then passed. It was not like an ordinary swarm- 
ing of male and female ants, for these were 
nearly all workers, a few large-winged females, 
however, being outside the ranks, viewing the 
procession. Some brush each side of the road 
prevented me from seeing from whence they 
came, or whither they were going. The day fol- 
lowing, the track in the road made by the ants 
showed plainly. 
During the month of June, being an amateur 
odonatist, I collected twenty-eight species of dra- 
gon-flies, and in July, twielve more. Nearly all of 
these were like some taken before, though some 
were not at all common. I have often noted the 
various methods needed for capturing the different 
species of "mosquito hawks," and wonder if 
others have noticed it too. The more common 
species may, of course, be taken nearly every 
way, but to obtain others it requires stratagem. 
Gomphus exilis, Libellula exusta and some others 
fly so swiftly it is almost necessary to wait until 
they alight before the net can be placed over 
them. In direct contrast to these, Somatochlora 
libera flies so lazily it may be taken on the wing 
with ease. One even flew into my net, and did 
not try to get out. The males of the genus Oor- 
dulegaster fly swiftly, directly over the brook, aud 
by careful watching may be intercepted in their 
flight, though they are adepts in the art of dodg- 
ing, testes and Ischnura perch in the long grass 
in the meadow, and may be easily swept off" with 
the net while walking along. Several times in 
July I observed Erythromma conditum laying eggs 
on the plants in the brook. The male, in each 
case, accompanied the female, clasping her just 
back of the head. Both would light on some 
plant, then with the tip of the abdomen just below 
tlie surface of the water, she placed the eggs in 
longitudinal rows within the leaves. Argia viola- 
cea oviposits in the same manner, but the females 
of Libellula and ^schna, I have observed, were 
not in any case accompanied by the male. I have 
never yet been successful in raising the larvae of 
dragon-flies in the house, because of the difficulty 
in keeping the water fresh enough, and vvitli a 
suflScieut quantity of food. 
On July 28 I stuffed a beautiful red-winged 
blackbird, almost a perfect specimen. 
In August the delusive Orapta butterflies ap- 
pear. Lighting on the trunks of the apple trees, 
it is hard at first to distinguish them, because the 
under side of the wings, when folded, so closely 
resembles the bark of the tree. G. j album is par- 
ticularly hard to obtain, from a habit it has of 
crawling into crevices between boards, and then 
emerging. I have chased one around the barn for 
an hour, and then did not get it. 
My time during August was considerably occu- 
pied providing food for my caged birds — in other 
words, caterpillars. On July 11 about one hun- 
dred of these "birds" hatched from eggs laid on 
June 24 by a Platysamia cecropia moth. These 
were almost black at first, and about one-eighth 
of an inch in length. Not knowing exactly what 
the favorite food plant might be, I placed several 
kinds of branches in the breeding place, hoping 
that one might be satisfactory. They commenced 
to feed'^on every branch, but died rapidly, until 
only five were left on apple leaves. These were 
strong and vigorous, and in about ten days pre- 
pared for the first moult. After this operation, 
and each succeeding moult, they devoured their 
cast off clothes, being different in this respect 
from many other caterpillars I h.ave reared. The 
period between moults after this was a little more 
than two weeks each time, and they moulted four 
times before reaching maturity. The first of Sep- 
tember they were four and one-fourth inches in 
length, and three-fourths of an inch in diameter. 
With brilliant trimmings of red, yellow and blue 
tubercles, they were gorgeous indeed to behold. 
Having read that this species was very difficult to 
rear, I feared these beauties might lose their 
vitality, crawling about before pupating, but in 
this I was happily disappointed, for they took 
very kindly to the branches provided, iind now 
five fine cocoons adorn my cage, and await next 
summer's opening. These are by no means all of 
my cocoons. The caterpillars of Telea polyphe- 
mus, Actios htna, Saturnia io, and sever.al others, 
beside some of butterflies, have been reared within 
the cage this year, and many other species in for- 
mer years. The moths and butterflies so obtained 
are larger and more perfect than those taken out 
of doors, aud I have the great pleasure of watch- 
ing them through all the transformations. 
On September 16 I found several larvae of Lime- 
nitis disippus on willow. These pretty creatures, 
now very small, live through the winter, and con- 
struct very neat winter residences of leaves, in 
which they lie dormant. 
The season for these observ.ations draws near 
its close. The summer, with all its opportuuities 
for the study of nature, is past, but may all in our 
beloved Agassiz Association, witli me, look for- 
ward to another summer, and hope for still 
greater opportunities for studying and appre- 
ciating the wonderful works of God. 
All are cordially invited to join the Agassiz 
Association. Address the President, Mr. Harlan 
II. Ballard, Pittsfield, Mass. 
