TOBACCO-WORU. THE PARENT MOTH. HER LONO TONODE. HER POOD. BER EGOS. 



millers of both species are of a gray color with a row of five yellow spots 

 along each side of the body, these spots being bordered with black, and 

 the wings are varied with brown clouds and obscurelj' marked with black 

 lines, and on their undersides the hind wings are crossed by two blackish 

 zigzag bauds, which are also obscurel}' traced upon the forward pair. Thus 

 they are so alike in their colors, and in so many of those spots and marks 

 which are most conspicuous, and which the eye first notices, that you feel 

 quite certain on looking them over, that they are both one species. It is 

 only when you come to closely inspect some particular points that you de- 

 tect such discrepancies as assure you they really are different insects. Thel 

 plainest mark of distinction between them is the black bands which cross 

 the upper side of tlieir hind wings. In the moth of our northern Tobacco- 

 worm 3-()u see two zigzag bands on the middle of the wings, the same as 

 on the underside. But in the southern you observe in place of these a single 

 broad band, which is very sliglitly, if at all, toothed or jagged along its 

 sides. In addition to this, on the hind body of the former, you notice a 

 slender black stripe along the middle of the back, of which there are no 

 vestiges in the latter. These marks will suffice to enable any one who has 

 either of these millers under his eye to decide which species of the two it is. 



We will next relate the biography of our insect. 



The moths do not all make their appearance simultaneously, but come out' 

 one after another, mostly. in the month of July, though continuing to occm* 

 abroad until the frosts of autumn have destroyed the flowers from which they 

 are fed. During the day time they remain at rest, hid from view, and come 

 out in the evening to feed and lay their eggs. From its thus appearing' 

 abroad upon the wing at the same hours when the musketos are most 

 numerous and annoying; Drury states that the southern species has ia 

 some parts of the West Indies obtained the name of tiio Musketo Hawk, it 

 being also supposed that it is attracted forUi at that particular time in 

 order to feed upon these petty torments. This, however, is a great error.' 

 The sole food of these moths is the honey of flowers, for obtaining which' 

 they are furnished with a remarkably long slender tongue, which, when 

 not in use, is coiled up like a watch spring, and concealed between the: 

 palpi or feelers. It may be unrolled and drawn out by inserting a pin into 

 the coil, atid when fully extended is five or six itiches in length. Thus it is 

 especially adapted for probing flowers which have long slender tubes, such 

 as the tobacco, stramonium, petunia, &c., whose nectaries are bej'ond the- 

 reach of bees and other honey gathering insects. The moth resembles a 

 hunnning bird in its motions, and also in the sound made by its wings as it is 

 hovering around flowers and sipping the honey from them. The tongue is 

 fully extended at such times; and hereby the moth is poised on its wings 

 at a distance of some inches from the flower on which it is nourishing itself. 



The eggs are probably placed on the underside of the leaves of those 

 plants on which its young feeds. The worms which come from these eggs' 

 are voracious feeders, consuming a large quantity of foliage and growing 

 rapidly, whereby some of the earliest ones attain their full size by the end 

 of July; but it ia during the month of August that they are present upon 



