SOME COMMON INSECTS 9 



Orders are again divided into families, those insects with family 

 resemblances being classed together. Thus the crickets belong to the family 

 Gryllidae. Families are split up into genera and each genus into species. 

 The animals that are practically identical all go to make up one species. 

 Thus all tiger swallowtail butterflies belong to the species Turnus, all 

 swallowtails to the genus Papilio. The scientific name of an animal or 

 plant is made up of the name of its genus and species, so Papilio turnus is 

 the scientific name of the tiger swallowtail. 



Butterflies. See specimens of the following butterflies and moths in 

 the cases of the school museum or look them up in Holland's Butterfly Book 

 and Moth Book. Learn to know them so you can recognize them in the 

 field: monarch, royal fritillary, great spangled fritillary, Baltimore, checker 

 spot, question-sign anglewing, comma anglewing, mourning cloak, red 

 admiral, painted lady, Hunter's butterfly, red-spotted purple, viceroy, 

 little wood satyr, common wood nymph, great copper, bluet, common white 

 cabbage butterfly, dog's-head, sulphur, pawpaw swallowtail, tiger swallow- 

 tail, spicebush swallowtail, pipevine swallowtail, eastern swallowtail, giant 

 swallowtail, and silver-spotted skipper. 



Life-history of the butterfly. In the late spring and in the summer 

 material for the study of the life-history of the butterfly is easily found. 

 Look over cabbage plants for eggs, larvae, and chrysalids of the cabbage 

 butterfly. The adults will be found flying over the cabbage patch. Look 

 on milkweed for the eggs, larvae, and pupae of the milkweed butterfly. 

 Draw the eggs on the leaf, the larva, and the chrysalis. Keep the larva of 

 some butterfly in the insect cage with its food plant until it pupates. See 

 this process if possible. A few days later the chrysalis will open and the 

 butterfly will emerge, expand its wings, and be ready to fly. Watch this 

 also. 



Moths. -The following moths are common and should be known: 

 Cecropia, polyphemus promethea, luna, eight-spotted forester, imperial, 

 royal, bumblebee moth, tomato hawk moth, Isabella, lo, cutworm moth, 

 tussock moth, silkworm moth, and clothes moth. 



Moth larvae. Look for the larvae of the moths. The larva of the tomato 

 hawk moth (a big green "worm") is common on tomato plants. Cecropia 

 larvae ornamented with blue, orange, and red knobs are easily located on 

 willow twigs. The brown, woolly bear, a very common caterpillar, is the 

 larva of the Isabella moth. The tussock larvae are common on elm trees. 

 Put any of these in the insect cage together with sprays of the food plant 

 stuck into the moist soil. Supply more of the food plant as the supply is 

 eaten. How would you tell one of these "worms" (that are really insect 

 larvae) from a true worm, like an earthworm? How does the animal 



