122 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



eggs are deposited singly by the female upon 

 the leaves of the tree which she selects for 

 this purpose. No case is on record of the 

 larva; ever swarming in such numbers, as 

 to do any material amount of damage to the 

 foliage irf%ny tree ; but wc regret to say 

 that thoSnpf another noble moth which is 

 closely ^I^Pl to it, and which is a slill more 

 general tOTJei', tbe Cecropia moth (Attacus ce- 

 cropia) sometimes inflict considerable injnry 

 upon apple-trees, and, according to Mr. Perkins, 

 of Onarga, 111., upon one occasion stripped his 

 young tulip-trees {Liriodendron ttilijiifera), 

 eiTOueously called " poplars " iu many parts of 

 the West, completely bare of their leaves. 



The antennffi of the Polyphemus Moth are 

 feathered in both sexes, but much more widely 

 iu the males than in the females. Our ligure 

 represents the male sex ; and as jyill be seen at 

 once, the antennaj might in this sex be readily 

 mistaken by an inexperienced person for a ijair 

 of little bastard wings growing out of the head. 

 In that excellent new French periodical, Le 

 Naturaliste Canadien, (p. 22) will be found an 

 amusing account from the pen of the Editor, of 

 such a mistake having been actually made by a 

 certain Canuck. We cannot resist the tempta- 

 tion of translating here the whole story from 

 the original French, for the benefit of the Ameri- 

 can reader. 



We must ?ooi in oraer to w ; iiml in N;i(ni;il lli-lmy 

 perhaps, more than in any oilni- ■l(]iaiiiiM ni i.l Iviimv- 

 ledge, we must kuow/toio to Im.K. in oiUi i- noi lo lir de- 

 ceived in our observations. ( inr dav on,' (.idnr « ..rtliy 

 niM-libours .■anio to rail upon u, with a n ory M'ir-ali>lied 



se.v, and wbieli lie ha 

 in the specimens in ot 

 to tm-n aside out- yoiii 

 in consequence of thi- 

 tcuii)t, we made him i 

 .111 these little beini,'- 

 them-.hr-brfnivoni- 



■in- him that, although 

 wings on their heads, 

 wonderful things that 



WC 



• to all our 



observe 1 cxainini-: and you will sic wonders witliout 

 number luifoUI thrmschcs before yipiu- eyes. 



It mav- be perhaps wortli while to add, that 

 the males of a genus of Span-worm or Measur- 

 ing-worm Motlis, found in Europe but not hith- 

 erto discovered in America {Lobophora) , are 

 remarkable for their hind wings being furnished 

 with a small membranous lobe, which gives 

 them the appearance of possessing an additional 

 l)air of wings; and that, among the Feather- 

 winged Moths (Aluclta family), each wing is 

 split more or less deeply into from two to si.x 

 feathered rays, so as almost to deceive one into 

 believing, that they really have about ten or 

 twelve wings, instead of oidy four. Of this last 

 group, one .species {Pteropkonis 2)eriiicelidartt/- 

 liis. Fitch) is quite common upon grape vines, 

 on the leaves of which the leaf-rolling larva 

 feeds exclusively, but seldom in such numbers 

 as to do any material amount of damage. 



WASPS AND THEIR HABITS, 



There are, at least, five hundred different 

 kinds, or species, of wasps found within the 

 limits of the United States, of the natural his- 

 tory of which, inasmuch as it is both interesting 

 and instructive, we now propose to give a 

 brief sketch, iluch as some of these insects 

 resemble one another at first sight, yet their 

 structure and (heir habits are often very differ- 

 ent; but, according to the general rule, where- 

 ever their structure is llie same, it will be found 

 that their htibits are nearly, or ((uite the same. 

 So that, in order to know what are the general 

 habits of a species that we may come across, it is 

 not usually necessary to find out the name of that 

 particular species, but only to ascertain to what 

 particular group it belongs. For, as with other 

 animals, species belonging to the same group 

 have tlie .same, or nearly the same, habits. 



In common with all kinds of bees and ants 

 that have any sting at all, it is only the females 

 among the wasps that have stings, the males 

 possessing no apparatus of the kind. Almost 

 everybody, for example, knows that the drone 

 of the honey-bee may be handled with perfect 

 inipunity; and the drone is nothing but the 

 male nt the lioiicy-bee, as all bee-keepers are 

 well iiwaie. Just so, all male wasps may be 



