Copyright by National Geographic Society, 1913. Photo by David I'airchild 



LARVA OF A SWALLOW-TAIL BUTTLRFLV 



It would be interesting to discover whether to a bird or other enemy the black and 

 white eye-spots, which make of this caterpillar a fit subject for a nightmare, appear as 

 monster eyes and frighten it away. The true eyes are small, invisible ones at either side of 

 its light-gray head (see page 609). 



weird workings of that little-understood 

 law of heredity this thorny, spotted crea- 

 ture has waddled along year after year, 

 keeping up in the race for hundreds, 

 perhaps thousands, of centuries. I can- 

 not help exhibiting a little of the show- 

 man's pride in it ; for, as Barnum would 

 say. this is positively the first real ap- 

 pearance of this century-hidden, hoary 

 monster before the every-day public. 



According to the books, this species 

 belongs to a strange family, in which are 

 even more remarkable-looking creatures. 

 They are all, however, characterized by 

 having the femora of their back legs cov- 

 ered with knobs or spines. One of the 

 species is so spiny all over its back that 

 the male makes use of it to carry around 

 the freshly laid eggs of the female. 



THK S(>u.\SH-L!ur, (.liiosa trisfis). pack 

 614 



The smell of the squash-bug is known 

 to every country boy. The odor is emit- 

 ted through openings in the abdomen 

 from special stink glands, which vary 

 with each species. 



The tough external skeleton explains 

 perhajis why no spray is strong enough 

 to kill the fully grown insects without 

 also injuring the yotmg squash and 

 ])umpkin vines, and why the best method 

 of prevention consists in screening the 

 young plants with a wire screen until 

 they have grown large enough to be im- 

 mune from attack. If you can find the 

 yoting insects which are not yet encased 

 in such a hardened shell, spraying with 

 a 10 i)er cent kerosene emulsion will stop 



611 



