4 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
Published on the tenth of each month except July 
and August. 
The official organ of the Wisconsin and Illinois 
Audubon Societies. 
Twenty-five cents per year. Single Copies 3 cts. 
All communications should be sent to Miss Ruth 
Marshall, Appleton, Wis. 
WILDCHERRY AND WILLOW INSECTS. 
These may he taken together because cater¬ 
pillars which feed upon one will usually eat 
the leaves of the other, or of cultivated cher¬ 
ry, apple, plum, or rose,—usually, not invar¬ 
iably. 
The most beautiful of the caterpillars is 
Smerinthurs myops, bright green with' spots 
of cardinal red, or red-brown, and a caudal 
horn. It burrows. This is sometimes 
found on willow as is its near rela¬ 
tive, Smerinthus jamaicensis and is much like 
it but has no red spots. Both species have 
seven yellow, or whitish yellow, oblique lines 
on each side of the body. 
Paonias excoecatus is found on both, and 
closely resembles S. jamaicensis. All three 
make lovely moths. 
The rarest sphingid caterpillar to be found 
on cherry is Sphinx drupiferarum, a huge fel¬ 
low with a caudal horn and oblique stripes of 
white edged above with 1 mauve, the whole 
body dotted with tiny yellow dots. 
Like all sphingid larvae, this one burrows to 
pupate, and is very often the victim of para¬ 
sitic flies, dying from becoming food for their 
larvae. 
Often in winter a cherry or willow T —or tu- 
lip tree, or ash', or lilac for that matter- 
may be found with dry leaves dangling from 
its branches. Generally these contain the co¬ 
coons of Callosomia promethea, whose naked, 
whitish green larvae, with coral tubercles near 
their heads, lived on the tree the summer be¬ 
fore. They are beautiful caterpillars and 
very easy to rear, and th’e spinning of their 
cocoons is especialy interesting as they spin 
much silk around a leaf-stem, and around the 
twig on which the leaf grows, fastening the 
leaf so firmly that it cannot fall when the oth¬ 
ers do. Indeed it generally needs a knife to 
cut the silk unless one breaks the twig. 
Various Datanas and slug-caterpillars, 
Apatelas, Catocalas, and loopers, Actias luna 
(on willow) Telea polyphemus, and many 
smaller larvae may be found, and the large 
and handsome Sarnia cecropia, green with 
orange, yellow, and blue tubercles, and spin¬ 
ning a large brown cocoon. 
In the Colorado region Sarnia gloveri, its 
moth even more beautiful that cecropia be¬ 
cause it h’as a rosy color in place of cecropia’s 
rust-red, may be formed on willow. 
Hy perch il ia io, green with a brownish band 
on each side and having green tufts of spines 
which “sting” like nettles if touched, should be 
abundant, especially on willow. The moths 
are lovely and the male and female differ 
much. All these spin cocoons. 
There are many Eacles imperialis, green or 
brown, with hairs more or less dense, a large 
crawler and one which burrows, finally becom¬ 
ing a very queer moth, yellow with dashes 
and spots of the color called “heliotrope” a 
few years ago. This is also very easy to rear, 
though mine have preferred pitch-pine needles 
to any food, even when found on willow or 
maple. 
One larva may be a puzzle because it has a 
caudal horn and yet is not a sphingid, though the 
horn is characteristic of th’e sphingid larvae. 
This is Pheosia rimosa, gray, like slate with a 
purplish tinge, or green, and having a sur¬ 
face almost like porcelain. 
There may be many butterfly-larvae, the 
large Papilio glaucus turnus, a green caterpil¬ 
lar looking as if it had the head of a tadpole 
with two fierce eyes, where really its small 
head is well concealed, at rest, and 
the “eyes” are merely spots on its 
body; Limenitis Ursula, and arthemis, queer 
crawlers looking like bird excrement lying on 
the leaves; Limenitis misippus of similar ap¬ 
pearance and often found, when very young, 
by the little bundle of grass which it fastens 
near the tip of the leaf on which it is feed¬ 
ing, and, the purpose, seekers say, “for the 
purpose of distracting attention from itself!” 
The eggs of these three species are said to 
be laid always on the very tip of a. leaf near 
or at the end of a branch. I have often fol¬ 
lowed misippus, and gathered every leaf on 
which she laid an egg, for an hour at a time 
on a roadside where willow and popular sap¬ 
lings abounded. 
On willow also may be found masses of the 
spiny larvae of Vanessa antiopa or mourning- 
cloak crowded together and leaving bare 
Continued on last page. 
