HOUSE AND GARDEN 
90 
August, 
i9D 
shunned by all 
except the few 
w h o see in 
them the pos¬ 
sibilities of ma¬ 
turity or are 
looking for in¬ 
teresting points 
in their life 
histories. How¬ 
ever, all cater¬ 
pillars do not 
develop into 
butterflies, the 
majority be¬ 
come moths 
and some crea¬ 
tures which 
strongly re¬ 
semble cat¬ 
erpillars are 
really quite 
different from 
butterfli es, 
moths and 
even insects as 
a whole. 
A simple but 
not generally 
enough known rule for recognizing an insect is that it has three 
pairs of jointed legs, if any. “If any” was added because young 
house flies, for example, have no legs. Spiders and centipedes 
are not insects; they have more than three pairs of jointed legs. 
The hard brown “thousand-legger” which looks so much like a 
caterpillar, is not an insect either. It will be objected by the 
observant doubter that caterpillars have more than three pairs of 
legs. Like most good rules, this one has its exceptions, but it is 
not to be caught on anything so easy as 
that. Only the three front pairs of the 
caterpillars’ legs are jointed; the remain¬ 
ing “legs” are merely fleshy props or 
claspers. If scientific names were more 
generally used this paragraph would not 
have been necessary, since the real name 
of insects is Hexapoda, or “six feet.” 
This raises at once the question which will not down, as to 
whether we ought to use the scientific or the popular names. 
Almost any one says “Rhinoceros” and, not knowing, perhaps, 
that it is really the scientific name, makes no objection. I taught 
my daughter when she was four years old that the burly, yellow 
and black bees which attracted her attention were called “Bom- 
bus” ; but, alas, she came in tears later because someone else had 
told her that they should be called 
“bumble bees.” I confess that “Mourn¬ 
ing Cloak” is, for some reason, easier 
to remember than “ Antiopa” but the 
butterfly to which these names refer is 
the “Camberwell Beauty” to the Eng¬ 
lish laity, although its scientific name is 
Antiopa the world over. A New York 
school teacher gave me a very severe 
scolding several years ago because I used scientific names in the 
Museum Insect Hall to the exclusion of popular ones. I have 
not done so since, and will not do so here, but I still think that I 
should. 
.An insect never gets wings until it is full-grown, so that little 
winged house flies never grow up to be big house flies. The main 
A young Grapta trying vainly to shed its skin 
which it has outgrown 
divisions in the classifications of insects are made according to 
the characters of their wings. True flies are Diptera (“two 
wings”), yet how many insects with four wings are called flies! 
True bugs are Heteroptera (“different wings,” one part of the 
front pair of wings being different in structure from the rest), 
yet even the students of butterflies are called bug-hunters! Moths 
and butterflies are classed together as Lepidoptera because the 
wings are covered with countless minute scales. It is these scales 
which bear the beautiful colors. One of the illustrations given 
here is of a Swallow-tail ( Papilio cresphontes ) with the scales re¬ 
moved from one wing. Nothing is left but a semi-transparent 
membrane supported by veins. 
Adult butterflies are active only by day and, as a rule, moths 
fly only at night; butterflies usually hold their wings upright when 
at rest, while moths rarely do; but the two may be further dis¬ 
tinguished by their antennae. It is unfortu¬ 
nate that these useful organs are so gener¬ 
ally known as “feelers.” A mosquito hears 
with its antennae. A very pretty experi¬ 
ment, but difficult to carry out, is to watch, 
under a microscope, the antennae of a male 
mosquito when females are singing about, 
or a tuning fork of the same pitch as their song is sounded. The 
hairs start vibrating as does a violin string 
when another tuned to it is played—we see 
the mosquito hear. Moths, on the other hand, 
smell with their antennae. Those who have 
read Fabre’s account of “The Emperor” 
know how difficult it is to prove this, but 
proof is not lacking. Now, moths, flying 
chiefly at night, seek their mates and the proper plants on which 
to lay their eggs largely, or solely, by the aid of their antennae, 
while butterflies probably depend largely upon sight. This is the 
explanation given for the greater complexity of moths’ antennae. 
The Mourning Cloak comes out of its winter quarters to bask in 
weak sunshine of early spring 
