August, 1913 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
At the left is one of the striking “black-and-yellow” butterflies, Papilio glaucus turnus, and in the right corner is its black form. I he pale green 
Luna moths and the Hawk moth in the center, illustrate two divergent types of night fliers 
They are feathered, the plumules being series of sensitive hairs. 
Butterflies’ antennae are smooth and have a knob at the end. Even 
if a moth’s antennae have plumules so small as not to be seen with 
the naked eye, they usually lack the terminal knob, and one is not 
likely to be deceived. 
There are four ages, really called stages, in the life of all 
Lepidoptera —egg, larva, pupa and adult. The eggs are fre¬ 
quently beautiful objects under a microscope, and are usually 
laid, either singly or in masses, on the leaves of the plant which 
serves as food for the caterpillars or larvae. 
When the caterpillars have eaten their fill once, they cast ofif the 
skin they have been wearing, but which is now too small, and get 
a larger one. This process is repeated three or four times, and 
finally they are full-grown caterpillars. 
The other day I found a young Grapta, a butterfly, which was 
about to moult. I knew this because it had made a platform of 
silk on the leaf so that it could get a good foothold. Further¬ 
more, the neck, where the old skin bursts, was so swollen that it 
showed yellow. I focused my camera on it and waited for three 
hours in the hot sun to get pictures of the process, but although 
the poor thing twisted and squirmed and stretched, it could not 
break the old skin, and finally died. A great deal of the mortality 
which reduces the scores or hundreds of insects born to a single 
female, down to the two which replace their parents, comes at 
the time of moulting. Perhaps my sorrow for this young Grapta 
was increased by the loss of the picture which I had waited so 
long to get. 
It is difficult to describe the difference between the larvae of 
butterflies and those of moths. When, not long ago, I was asked 
to do so, I failed utterly; so I asked two older men who had been 
interested in these creatures most of their lives. They passed the 
question up to a specialist in Lepidoptera. The consensus of 
opinion was that there is no difference, but that it is easy to tell 
them apart! Perhaps a reader can do better. I have since found 
a difference which I think will hold, but I am afraid to put it in 
print now, and will answer the question by mentioning some 
moths. That leaves a smaller number from which to pick the 
butterflies. 
Butterfly and the majority of moth larvae have four pairs of 
legs which are not true legs (the props mentioned above) in the 
middle of their body and a pair of claspers at the hind end. If 
there are more than these, the larva is not a caterpillar but a young 
saw fly, related to wasps. Inch — or measuring — worms are moth 
larvae. They are unlike other young Lepidoptera, in that they 
have no props in the middle of the body and must go looping 
along. As for lepidopterous larvae with the full complement of 
The skippers are of wide distribution and are found in a great number 
of different species. They belong to the enormous class of insects 
that are harmless 
The nymphs are easily recognized by the prominent eye spots on the 
under surfaces of their wings. This photograph also illustrates a 
characteristic wing position 
