88 



GEOIvOGY OF IvA SAI^LE COUNTY. 



bird, and they are generally reg^arded as such by most 

 people. They usually come out to visit flower g-ardens 

 late in the afternoon, and fly into the nig'ht. The 

 caterpillars are larg-e, strong and ravenous, and feed on 

 the tomato, potato, purslane and iVmpelopsis Virg-in- 

 iana, etc. They descend into the ground, become 

 chrysalids, and remain there until spring-, when in 

 June and JuW they come forth as moths. The tomato 

 w^orm is too well known to need description. The to- 

 bacco worm is much like it, and there are others gener- 

 ally feeding- on the elm, plum, g-rape-vine, &c. The to- 

 mato and the tobacco worms onl5% do much damage. 



The moths, in g-eneral, fly by night or in the cool 

 of the day. Some of them are very larg-e, as the ce- 

 cropia, — Platysamia cecropia living on the apple, the 

 Promethus — Callosania Promethea, living on the 

 cherry and sassafras, and the beautiful Luna — Actia 

 Luna; wings tailed, yellowish green, with a purple 

 band near border. It feeds on the walnut, hickory 

 and maple. The last three are really wood moths and 

 not found far from timber. They are the larg-est and 

 handsomest of our moths. Their caterpillars are 

 l^rg-e and green, or bluish green and variously marked 

 and ornamented. There are many genera besides the 

 above, and a multitude of species so that on a warm, 

 still, damp night, one may often capture 30 or 40 dif- 

 ferent species in an hour by setting- alig-ht where they 

 can come to it and he will And that his visitors chang-e, 

 some coming- early, others late. 



Many of these creatures, and the small particu- 

 larly so, do a great amount of damage — always in the 

 larval or caterpillar stag-e, and too much pains cannot 

 be taken to destroy them while they are yet worms. 



