Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/400

384 these often unwelcome visitors by the damage they do to the treasures of the gardener and farmer. Many kinds feed in clusters, and make nests into which they retire in the daytime, separating usually before full grown and to make their cocoons. The larger species are all solitary, and some are the most beautiful objects one can wish to see. The caterpillar of the "imperial moth," which may be found on the horse-chestnut, tulip, and gum trees in Central Park every September, when it is full grown, is a thick, green worm, as long as the thumb, with four beautifully notched horns on the back, behind the head. Delicate hairs adorn the body, and the fleshy feet behind are ornamented by a design in black-and-white, looking like bead-work, and as if the creature wore Indian moccasins. In April and May we may find the larvae of species which pass the winter in that state. One of our handsomest caterpillars is that of the "great Indian moth" (Ecpautheria scribonia), black, studded with bristles and with the incisions of the rings of the body marked in scarlet. I have fancied that this caterpillar is the one noted by the Indians, and sung of by Longfellow in "Hiawatha."

It is very interesting, no matter what the species is, to watch it through all its changes, and be rewarded finally by the moth disclosing all its fresh beauties before our eyes, as it hangs on the side of the breeding-cage. The caterpillars of the "hawk-moths," and many "owlet-moths," enter the ground to pupate; and for this purpose the sand and soil in the bottom of the breeding-cage must not be kept too dry, nor suffered to become hard. Those which do not go into the ground will transform within cocoons spun among the moss, or on the sides of the breeding-cage.

To collect the perfect moths, an empty quinine-bottle must be prepared by putting a few small lumps of cyanide of potassium on the bottom, and pouring on sufficient plaster of Paris to cover them perfectly. When the plaster is set, the fumes of the decomposing cyanide penetrate through the plaster, and the moth introduced into the bottle is almost instantly killed. Poison-bottles, so prepared, are indispensable to the collector, and they can be recommended on account of the speedy and probably painless death which they inflict. The objection to entomology is its apparent cruelty. I think that an unnecessary number of specimens are sometimes killed by the enthusiastic collector, but, after a little, this fault will be corrected by reflection and experience. When we recollect that insects are the main store of food to numberless birds and animals, besides falling a prey to each other, so that the greater proportion meet a violent death in any case, the comparatively small number which fall a sacrifice to the pleasure of the collector, or supply the studies of scientists, can not in reason be objected to. Our æsthetic pleasures are increased by the contemplation of the lovely colors and delicate patterns which adorn the wings of moths.