SOME OTHER LARGE MOTHS 299 



When disturbed, the caterpillar raises its head and horns and shakes 

 them from side to side in a manner to bring fear to the heart of the 

 bravest ; but this is all a bluff, for it is as no more dangerous than 

 a walnut on the tree above it. Toward the end of the stimmer 

 when it is ftdly grown it descends and burrows into the grotmd 

 and changes to a pupa without spinning a cocoon. The popular 

 name for this insect is "The Regal Walnut Moth" for its food plant 

 is the walnut. 



The Imperial Moth 



This is not such a showy species as the Regal moth, but it is 

 ver\' beautiful in its coloring; its wings are sulphur yellow thickly 

 sprinkled with purplish browm dots, with a large patch at the base, 

 a small round spot near the middle and a wavy band towards the 

 outer margin of Hght purple; the males have the outer margin 

 of the front wings purplish bro^N-n. The moth measures about 

 five inches across its expanded wings. It appears in Jime and lays 

 its eggs on the leaves of the sycamore, hickory or butternut, on 

 which its larvae feed. 



In its early stages the caterpillar has long movable horns "as 

 if it were own brother to the hickory-homed-devil; " but with 

 age, it loses this fierce appearance; when fully gro-VNTi, it is four 

 and a half inches long, green in color tinged with red and sometimes 

 is brown; short hairs are scattered over the body and each seg- 

 ment bears six \'ellow knobs ornamented with black spines; the 

 head and legs are pale orange and the breathing pores are white. 

 The caterpillar gets its growth by autumn and descends from the 

 tree and goes into the ground to pupate; it makes no cocoon; 

 the pupa has at the rear end a long forked spine which aids it in 

 working its way up through the soil when ready to emerge as a 

 moth. 



Basilona imperialis, caterpillar 



