I 4 2 STARLIGHT AND SUNSHINE. 



is an example, never intrusting that waterproof circlet of eggs 

 (shown in my "random posy") to any tree outside of this family, 

 most commonly contenting herself with the apple and wild-cherry. 



I might indefinitely prolong the list of testimonials to this 

 divine plan of association between the insect and the plant; and 

 while it is not a necessary assumption, inasmuch as " we have no 

 experience in the creation of worlds," it would seem a perfectly 

 justifiable inference that all species of butterflies and moths were 

 created with a special affinity to some congenial order of plants. 

 It would then appear that this power of nice distinction has de- 

 teriorated in many insects, either through the degraded instinct 

 of the parent or less fastidious appetite in the caterpillar off- 

 spring, and inasmuch as the " exception " has come to be consid- 

 ered as an important attribute in proving the rule, I will append 

 a few such instances, some of which, indeed, are quite as inter- 

 esting and instructive as the " infallibles." 



In the examples of the large Cccropia, Polyphemus, Prome- 

 theus, and Lima moths, as well as in a number of butterflies, it is 

 true the power of discernment seems to have been lost, the se- 

 lection of food plants extending into various families, though even 

 here, it must be remembered, we are taking a thousand insects as 

 a unit, there being a strong probability that any one individual 

 parent and its offspring may yet be found true to a particular bo- 

 tanical affinity to which its brood is intrusted, the various peculi- 

 arities being, as it were, the hereditary result of some confusion of 

 Babel in the remote past. The Saturnia Jo belies the great show 

 of "bull's-eyes" upon its wings, being blindly indiscriminate. But 

 what do we find in the instance of the Monarch or Archippus 

 butterfly, the protege of the milk -weeds? You will find its black- 

 and-yellow banded caterpillar on all the six species of New Eng- 

 land Asclepias if you look with sufficient patience, though chiefly 

 upon the common silk -weed. It is a faithful nursling of this lac- 

 tescent tribe. On one occasion, however, I have found it thriving 

 on the dog-bane, a similarly milky-juiced plant. But what is the 

 fiat of the human botanical judges? The dog-bane is ordered out 

 of the milk -weeds, though it immediately precedes them in the 



