STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY^ 
339 
APPLE. LEAVES. 
points along each side, and two rows of pale yellow ones upon the 
back, with four larger bright orange or red ones anteriorly, all 
ending in little black prickles; attaching its large pod-like rusty 
gray cocoon to the side of a limb. The moth large, its wings dark 
gray, each with a large white crescent-like spot in the centre, 
margined with red, and beyond this a red band crossing both 
wings and margined on its fore side with white upon the hind pair. 
Appears in June. Width five to seven inches. See Harris’ 
Treatise, p. 299. 
A few words in explanation of the name of this moth may not 
be amiss in this connection. Sir James Edwin Smith says “ we 
canuot in this instance commend the nomenclature of Linnaeus, 
nor is it easy to conjecture what connection he imagined between 
this moth, magnificent as it is, and the city of Athens, to which 
its name implies it to belong.” And Dr. Harris, echoing the same 
sentiment, remarks, “ Cecropia was the ancient name of the city 
of Athens; its application, by Linnaeus, to this moth, is inexpli¬ 
cable.” The great legislator of this department of human know¬ 
ledge, as he is expressively styled by Latreille, it has frequently 
been remarked, was endowed with a genius which few of his dis¬ 
ciples have inherited, for selecting names for natural objects, which 
are most appropriate and happy. The idea which was present in 
the mind of Linnaeus, when he named this splendid moth, we 
think is sufficiently evident. The Athenians were the most polished 
and refined people of antiquity. The moths are the most delicate 
and elegant of insects; they are the Athenians of their race. 
Cecrops was the founder, the head of the Athenian people. When 
the names of men were bestowed upon cities, ships or other 
objects regarded as being of the feminine gender, classical usage 
changed these names to the feminine form. The moths (Phalaena) 
being feminine, and the name of Cecrops being more euphonious 
in this form, probably induced Linnaeus to change it in the manner 
be did. The name thus implies this to be the leader, the head of 
the most elegant tribe of insects, or in other words, the first of all 
the insect kind. What name more appropriate can be invented 
for this “ost sumptuous moth 1 It was in the cabinet of Queen 
Ulrica that Linnaeus met with this species, and it appears that 
after having bestowed upon it this name, another species became 
