HOW TO KNOW THE INSECTS 



129 



laries. Tortoise-shells, Admirals. Peacocks, 

 Ringlets, Meadow-browns, (Graylings, and 

 other familiar butterflies. The Brim- 

 stone Butterfly belongs to the family 

 known as Papilionidcr, in which the butter- 

 flies of both sexes possess six perfect legs, 

 and the chrysahs is attached by its tail, 

 but in an upright position, and girdled by 

 a silken thread, as shown in the illustra- 

 tion. This family includes 

 the Common Whites, Orange- 

 tips, Clouded Yellows. Swal- 

 low-tails, and the Brimstones, 

 as we have seen. So that by 

 stud}nng the metamorphoses 

 of the White Admiral and 

 Brimstone butterflies we get 

 a clear exposition of the 

 salient characteristics of two 

 of the largest families into 

 which butterflies are grouped. 



The chr3'salis stage con- 

 tinues for some sixteen or 

 seventeen days before the 

 butterfly is ready to appear. 

 In my next paper I hope to 

 be able to introduce a photo- 

 graph of it before it enters 

 on its final sphere of life and 

 seeks to conquer space on its 

 pale yellow wings. 



We may now look for fur- 

 ther development from those 

 cocoons at which we glanced 

 at the end of May. From the 

 cocoons amongst the coarse 

 grasses will shortly emerge 

 Drinker Moths, and these 

 may somewhat astonish the 

 amateur entomologist by their 

 variety of colour. Some are of a tawny 

 brown, while others are almost a golden 

 yellow, and two white spots, one large 

 and one small, appear near the centre 

 of the forewings. The individual in- 

 sects vary very much in colour, but 

 there is a distinct division into brown 

 and yellow insects, and the brown insects, 

 it should be observed, have large and 

 feathery antennae, as illustrated in the 

 upper example on this page, which is a 

 photograph of the male moth. Below is the 

 yellow female insect, whose antenuc'c are 

 comparatively simple in structure. Light 

 has great attraction for these moths, and 

 they may frequently be found on the out- 

 17 



skirts of towns fluttering somewhat reck- 

 lessly around street lamps, often finding 

 their way into the interior of the lamp, 

 where they meet their doom. 



Wherein lies the mysterious attraction 

 in artificial light that so fascinates moths 

 and other insects it is difficult to imagine. 

 Undoubtedly the light appeals to some 

 sense of the insects, and often so forcibly 



DRINKER MOTHS. 

 The upper is the male insect. 



as to make them obhvious of everything 

 around them. Some of the larger Hawk- 

 Moths are so reckless in the presence of 

 a bright light that I have frequently 

 seen them plunge at the globe of an electric 

 arc-light with such force that the impact 

 caused a distinctly audible thud and 

 hurled them stunned and helpless to the 

 ground. It is a remarkable fact that 

 while to some moths light seems irresist- 

 ible, others are never attracted by it. 

 Considered by analogy with our human 

 senses, this attraction seems unaccount- 

 able, but I am inclined to think that it 

 must be something akin to that fascination 

 which a large flywheel of an engine exerts, 



