162 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA 



bears a whitish pupillary line, or white streak. Around the 

 eye-spots is an area of contrasting bright yellow, and outside 

 there is a marginal black line, a yellow band, and a rosaceous 

 shading toward the edge that gives thein the appearance of 

 staring eyes. 



The under side of this moth, as is well known, is plainly 

 marked when at rest, presenting only a small whitish spot on 

 each side of the underwings. The behavior of this insect was 

 certainly interesting. Instead of flying a\yay, it made a display 

 of these beautiful markings. 



To come back to an explantion of the phenomenon witnessed. 

 First, it will be seen that these elaborate «ye-spots shown here 

 are effectual only against animals with vision of a high order, 

 and capable of appreciating color values, as well as form, 

 on a gross scale. No animal but a vertebrate could possibly 

 come under this distinctive class, and of these, white-footed 

 mice, bats, squirrels, birds, reptiles, and tree-toads could be 

 considered. For these were the animals found in the forest 

 where my observations were made. If any of these animals 

 prey upon the moths, one might conceive of the explanation of 

 the display of eye-like spots as follows: These moths conceal 

 themselves by day but fly at dusk and night. It is not likely 

 that these conspicuous eye-spots which are displayed only when 

 excited and during flight would be signals of distastefulness 

 at night. It seems much more probable that they are alarm 

 markings serving to terrify or at least bewilder its smaller foes. 

 It is, however, barely possible, if they are attacked by birds, that 

 these spots would be pierced and thereby prevent the destruc- 

 tion of the vital parts, as maintained by Darwin. 



In the same woods referred to, on different occasions, I 

 found the wings of these moths which had been severed from 

 the body, and sometimes they were badly mutilated by some 

 animal. Though I made a continued search to find out this 

 particular enemy, I was unable to determine the cause of these 

 depredations. It might possibly have been done by either 

 owls, bats, or flying squirrels, living in the woods. 



So much for the moth state, but in spite of some protection 

 afforded the moth, the larvae are often sacrificed in great 

 numbers by the ichneumon wasps on the one hand, while its 



