MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES 



BY R. W. SHUFELDT, M. D. 



(Photograph! by the author) 



S1K >ULD you happen to be passing through a piece 

 of woods almost anywhere in the Atlantic States 

 during the latter part of July, woods containing 

 maples, oaks, poplars, and others, there would be noticed 

 scattered here and there 

 upon the ground under the 

 oaks or maples, certain 

 little black, barrel-shaped 

 bodies, each about a quartev 

 of an inch in length. II 

 found, it would be well to 

 bring the leaves of that tree 

 under most searching obser- 

 vation. If you have good 

 eyes, it will not be long be- 

 fore you will locate over- 

 head a very large caterpillar, 

 quietly munching a leaf. 

 Should it prove to be the 

 big, hairy specimen here 

 shown in Figure I, you will 

 have discovered the larva of 

 one of our most elegant and 

 largest moths the Imperial 

 Moth or Basilom imperialis 

 (Figs. I and 3). Your giant 

 caterpillar may either be a 

 bright green color or a dull 

 brown it is the same spe- 

 cies, however. Such ex- 

 amples of different coloring 

 of caterpillars are to be ob- 

 served in the case of sev- 

 eral other species ; but when 

 the moths emerge from the 

 pupae of either the green or 

 the brown ones, all the char- 

 acters are the same, quite 

 irrespective of the color of 

 the caterpillar. 



To get the specimen home, 

 the best way to do is to cut 

 off the twig bearing the leaf 

 upon which it is feeding 

 say a couple feet of it, in- 

 cluding six or eight of its 

 leaves. This will be the best 

 kind of a perch for it in the event you desire to obtain a 

 negative of the specimen. In the home workshop or 

 study-room your Basilona caterpillar should be carefully 

 placed in a cage, and regularly fed with fresh green 

 leaves of the species of tree upon which you found it. In 

 due time it will pupate you will discover the pupa 

 in 



A FULL-GROWN LARVA OF THE IMPERIAL MOTH, NATURAL 

 SIZE, FROM LIFE 



Figure 1. This big caterpillar {Basilona imperialis of Drury), is an 

 omniyerous feeder on the leaves of trees and shrubs; it may be 

 of either a green or a brown color, a dichromatism that in no 

 viay effects the moth. Another peculiarity is their hairiness, here 

 well shown. 



somewhere in the cage, the dark brown thing having 



much the same appearance as the pupa of the Regal Moth. 



The pupa must now be left perfectly undisturbed in a 



warm room until the moth issues from it. Some morning, 



upon looking into the cage, 

 this very thing has come to 

 pass. Your specimen may 

 be suspended like the Regal 

 Moth here shown in Figure 

 4, either on one of the sides 

 of the breeding-box, or from 

 some dried leaf or twig 

 within it. Often it is only 

 holding on by its fore feet ; 

 is either perfectly quiet, or 

 its wings may be trembling. 

 In any event, it will not be 

 spread out in any such fash- 

 ion as are the two Imperial 

 moths shown in Figures 2 

 and 3. These are cabinet 

 specimens, and beautifully 

 mounted ones at that. 



The female moth is much 

 larger tha n . the male ; and 

 while the forms of the 

 antennas are different, the 

 basic color of the wings is 

 the same a rich canary yel- 

 low both above and below. 

 On the upper side of the in- 

 ferior wings there is, in 

 either sex, an oblique, nar- 

 row band of pinkish purple, 

 with an isolated, small circle 

 of the same color above the 

 middle of it. In addition to 

 this there is a thickish 

 sprinkling of the same color, 

 as fine dots, all over the 

 wings, which, in the male, 

 runs into solid areas at the 

 bases of the wings, which 

 area, on either side, is four 

 times more extensive in the 

 superior wings than in the 

 inferior pair. In the female 

 these solid areas of color are represented only by rather 

 broadish zigzag lines. Again, in the male, there is a 

 solid, elongate patch of the same tint occupying the 

 outer part of either superior wing, coming clear to its 

 edge for the entire length. There is also a zigzag, 

 oblique bar here, running from the outer upper angle 



