The Insect World: Being a Popular Account of the Orders of Insects

lines running along it. The hind wings are of a rose tint, with three black bands. The wings are of a reddish grey below with a common black band The abdomen has black and rose-coloured rings above, and in the middle a brownish band wholly divided by a black line.

This species is very common in all parts of Europe. One finds it in gardens from June to September. Of all the caterpillars of the genus Sphinx, this is the one which, by its attitude when in

Fig. 189.— Privet Hawk-Moth {Sphinx ligtcsirt).

a state of repose, most resembles the sphinx of fable, from which the genus has derived its name. It is of fine apple green, with seven oblique stripes, half violet and half white, placed on each side of its body, and three or four small white spots beyond these stripes. The stigmata are orange, the head is green, bordered with black. The extremity of the body is surrounded by a smooth horn, black above, yellow below (Fig. 190). This beautiful caterpillar is not rare. It lives on a great number of trees and shrubs, but it is principally on the privet, the lilac, and the ash tree, that it must be looked for. Three or four days before it buries itself in the earth to change itself into a chrysalis, its colours grow dim (Fig. 191). During the month

LEPIDOPTERA,

of June and September is found the Convolvulus Sphinx {Sphinx convolviili, Fig. 192), with brown wings, and with the abdomen striped

Fig. 190.— Larva of the Privet Hawk-Moth {Sphinx ligvstrt).

with transverse bands alternately black and red. The caterpillar of this species, which presents a great number of varieties, lives on many

Fig. 191.— Pupa of Sphinx ligustri.

kinds of CoftvolviiH, but particularly on the field species. It is generally rare in Great Britain, but occasionally abundant.

It is to the genus Acherontia that a well-known moth belongs. We refer to the Death's-head Moth {Acherontia atropos). It is the largest species of hawk-moth. This insect presents, roughly marked out in light yellow, on the black ground of its thorax, a human skull.

This funeral symbol, joined to the plaintive cry which this moth emits when frightened, has sometimes inspired terror into the whole population of a country. The appearance of this moth in certain countries having coincided with the invasion of an epidemic disease, some thought they saw in this doleful sylph of the night the messenger of death. The Acherontia atropos plays a great part in the superstitions which are believed in by the country folk in England. One

Fig. 192. — The Convolvulus Sphinx {Sphinx convolvult).

hears it said in country places that this ominous inhabitant of the air is in league with the witches, and that it goes and murmurs into their ears with its sad and plaintive voice the name of the person whom death is soon to carry off. In spite of its ominous livery, the Atropos does not come from Hades; it is no envoy of death, bringing sadness and mourning. It does not bring us news of another world; it tells us, on the contrary, that Nature can people every hour; that it was her will to console them for their sadness, to grant to the twilight and

LEPIDOPTERA.

to the night the same winged wanderers which are at once the delight and ornament of the hours of hght and of day.

This is the mission of science, to dissipate the thousands of preju-dices and dangerous superstitions which mislead ignorant people.

Fig. 193.— Death’s-head Hawk-Moth (Acherontia atropos).

This moth has the front wings of a blackish brown colour, having lighter irregular bands varied with brown and grey, above and below. On the middle of the front wing there is a well-defined white dot. The hind wings have two black bands, the upper narrower than the lower one; the rest of the wing is a fine yellow. The abdomen has likewise from five to six yellow and as many black bands; in the middle is a long blackish longitudinal band. This moth is not very rare, and may be found in autumn. Its flight is heavy, and, as we have said, the insect never flies till after sunset. If caught, or when teased, it utters a cry which is very audible (Fig. 193).

The death's-head hawk-moth would be a very inoffensive being if it did not make its way into beehives, in order to steal the honey, of which it is excessively fond. It is to no purpose that the bees dart their stings at the intruder, they only blunt them against its thick skin, and soon, terrified at its presence, disperse on all sides.

rig. 194. — Larva of the Death's-head Hawk-Moth {Acherontia airopos).

The caterpillar of the Acherontia atropos (Fig. 194) is the largest of all European caterpillars. It attains to as much as four and a half inches in length by eight lines in diameter. Its colour is lemon yellow, which changes into green on the sides and belly. From the fourth to the tenth ring inclusively it is ornamented laterally with seven oblique bands of an azure blue, which are tinted with violet, and bordered with white on the side. These bands joining together over the back of each segment resemble so many chevrons placed parallel to each

107

LEPIDOPTERA,

other. The body is, moreover, dotted with black. At its extremity-is a yellow horn, curved back like a hook, and covered with tubercles.

Fig. 195. — Chrysalis of the Death's-head Hawk-Moth.

The head is green, and marked laterally with a black stripe. It lives chiefly on the potato, and the Lycium barbariim^ sometimes called the

Fig. 196.— Lime Hawk-Moth {Smerinthiis tilice).

lea-tree, a shrub belonging to the Solanacece. It buries itself in the ^rth to change into a chrysalis (Fig. 195) of a bright chestnut brown.

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Fig. 197.— Larva of the Lime Hawk-Moth (SmcrintJui% tilice).

Fig. 198 —Eyed Hawk-Moth [Svterinthiis ocellatus).

We will mention still further, in the family of the Sphiiigid(z, three species of the genus Smeriiithiis, which fly heavily and by twilight

LEPIDOPTERA.

The Lime-tree Hawk-moth {Smerinthus tilice, Fig. 196) has its upper wings grey with some shades of green, and moreover, in the middle of the wing an irregular band of a brownish green colour. The thorax, covered with hairs, is grey, with three green longitudinal bands. The abdomen is also grey. The moth flies heavily after sunset, and is found on the trunks of trees during the months of May and June. The larva (Fig. 197) is glaucous green dotted with yellow, and marked on each side with seven oblique lines of the same colours.

Fig. 1 99. — Poplar Hawk- Moth {Smerin th us popu li).

Its wrinkly horn is blue above and yellow below. It is found on the lime and the elm. It buries itself at the foot of the tree on which it has fed to change into a chrysalis without making a cocoon.

We will content ourselves by here giving drawings of two other species of the same genus: the Eyed Hawk-Moth {Smerifithus ocellatus,

Fig. 198), which is not rare during the months of May and sometimes August, the caterpillar of which lives on the leaves of willows, poplars, and fruit-trees; and the Poplar Hawk-Moth {Stnerinthus populi, Fig. 199), whose caterpillar (Fig. 200) lives on the poplar, the aspen, and sometimes on the willow and birch.

The division oi Bombyc'ma contains the largest of moths, and at

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the same time species of a middle and small size. These moths take no nourishment, and live only for a short time — long enough to propagate their species. They rarely fly during the day, only showing themselves in the evening. The group is dispersed over nearly all parts of the world, and may be recognised by the antennae generally being cut like the teeth of a comb in the males, by their thick, strong bodies, and, in the m.ajority of cases, by their large head, by their wings more or less large, and by their heavy flight.

Fig. 200. — Larva of the Poplar Hawk-Moth {innerinthus populi).

In the Bombycina are found the genera Sericaria, Attacus^ Bombyx, Orgyiay Liparis, &c. It is to the genus Bombyx that the silkworm belongs, that celebrated insect called by Linnaeus Bombyx niori, a name which reminds us at the same time of its most ancient denomination, and of the mulberry tree, on which these caterpillars feed.

M. Guerin-Meneville has called the silkwomi " the dog of insects,''for it has been domesticated from the most ancient times, and has become deprived of great part of its strength in the process. The moth of the silkworm can no longer keep its position in the air, or on the leaves of the mulberry when they are agitated by the wind. It can no longer protect itself, under the leaves, from the burning heat of the sun and from its enemies. The female, always motionless^

seems to be ignorant of the fact that she has wings. The male no longer Hies; he flutters round his companion, without quitting the ground. It ought, however, to be possessed in the wild state of a sufficiently powerful flight. M. Ch. Martins found that after three generations reared in the open air, the males recovered their lost power. Before speaking of the different phases of the life of the silkworm and the rearing of this precious insect, we will notice the origin and progress of the silk trade, one of the most important branches of commerce in the South of Europe and in the East.

The native country of the silkworm is not better known than that of the greater number of plants and animals which form the staple of agricultural industry. Probably, however, it was China. It was certainly in this vast empire that long since the business of fabricating