The sulphur or brimstone, _gonepteryx rhamni_, (see Note M;) ghost moth,
_hepialus humuli_; blue argus, _papilio argus_; painted lady, _papilio
cardui_; marble butterfly, _p. galathea_; humming bird hawk-moth,
_sphinx stellatarum_; brown meadow butterfly, _p. janira_; the admirable
_vanessa atalanta_; peacock, _vanessa Io_; gamma moth, _phalæna gamma_;
goat moth, _ph. cossus_; blue argus butterfly, _papilio argiolus_.
This beautiful and highly interesting family of insects, with which we
are all familiar by sight at least, has been thus far less studied in
America, than in other countries. Very little has yet been printed among
us regarding our native butterflies, and even European works on these
subjects are rarely met with. It has long been the writer’s wish to
become better acquainted with these interesting little creatures, and,
doubtless, there are others who have the same inclination; but few of us
have the good luck to meet with the necessary books and teachers. A few
facts relating to the butterflies alluded to by Mr. Knapp, will be found
below.
_The Ghost Moth, hepialus humuli_, p. 198.—There is a division of moths
in England, called swifts, or ghost moths, having all the same habit of
flight described by Mr. Knapp, as the origin of their name of “Ghosts.”
The particular moth alluded to by the author, is very common in England;
their white, satiny wings are easily seen in the twilight, and as
fragments of these are frequently found in the morning scattered about,
it is supposed that night-hawks and owls feed much on their bodies. The
female lays a number of small, black eggs, resembling gunpowder. Mr.
Gosse, in his “Canadian Naturalist,” mentions a moth or Bombyx, found in
Canada, the Dragon Moth, _hepialus argenteomaculatus_, belonging to the
same family; “I was surprised and pleased to observe the striking
similarity, not only of shape and general appearance, but also of
manners, to the English species of that family. They continue in one
place, dancing from side to side on the wing, just over the herbage,
within a space of a yard or two. A large female I caught, on being
pinned, began to eject her small, white eggs with great rapidity,
driving them to a considerable distance.”
The same moth is found in Massachusetts, and doubtless in other parts of
the United States; it is included in Prof. Hitchcock’s “Catalogue of the
Animals and Plants of Massachusetts,” p. 72.
_Painted Lady, cynthia cardui._—This insect ranks with the largest and
most beautiful of European butterflies, and is one of the few creatures
of its race very widely diffused over the world, being found alike, it
is said, in the western and eastern, the northern and the southern
hemispheres. In North America they are more common than in England,
where they are rather rare. They have been found in China and Western
Asia, as well as in Africa, and travelers declare that they are to be
met with in Otaheite and Australia. These pretty creatures are indeed
great rovers; they will frequently, when on the coast, sail out straight
to sea, and are usually very bold in their flight, which is higher than
that of other species.
One of the most singular incidents on record, connected with entomology,
is related of this species of butterfly. A migration of these insects
occurred some years since in Switzerland, on the Lake of Neufchatel
during the month of March; they flew with great rapidity from north to
south, moving in a column from ten to fifteen feet in breadth, in
compact order, and continued passing in this manner for upward of two
hours. Although many flowers yielding honey were in bloom at the time,
not a butterfly alighted, but all continued their strange flight. Other
instances of the same kind have been noticed in Europe and South
America, but we do not remember to have ever seen any allusion to
migrations of this kind, among our native butterflies.
The caterpillar of the Painted Lady feeds on the spear thistle, whose
thick leaves it nevertheless succeeds in rolling up as a cover for its
chrysalis.
_The Gamma Moth, noctua gamma_, derives its name from having on its
primary wings, a figure stamped in gold, precisely similar to that
letter of the Greek alphabet. In England it is very common. In some
countries of Europe this moth in its caterpillar stage of existence, has
been a scourge to the vegetation. In 1735 these insects increased so
rapidly in France, that they excited serious fears of famine by their
ravages in the fields and gardens. The roads were covered with them
traveling from one field to another. In the kitchen gardens, they left
nothing but the stalks of the plants. Mr. Reaumur calculated that a
single pair of these moths might produce in one season eighty thousand
caterpillars!
Mr. Gosse found the gamma moth in Canada: “I have obtained several new
species of _noctua_, among which is the _dusia gamma_ so common in
England.”
_The Blue Argus, polyommatus argiolus._—This pretty little blue
butterfly is found also in America; it is mentioned by Mr. Gosse, who
saw it in Canada, and is included among the insects of Massachusetts
also, and doubtless it belongs to other parts of the United States. Its
caterpillar feeds on the buckthorn and on the holly.
_The Goat Moth, cossus ligniperda._—“The great goat moth, while yet a
caterpillar, occupies in solitary darkness the trunk of willow, oak, or
poplar. For three successive summers it is employed in eating into the
solid wooden barrier which divides it from the sunny world—for as many
winters it sleeps within one of the dark tunnels thus excavated by its
powerful jaws; but after this extended period of repletion and repose,
it scarcely lives over the same complement of weeks to exercise its
broad, dusky pinions in the summer moonlight.”
“A large, smooth, unsightly crawler, of a livid red and salmon color,
black-headed, and black-clawed, this caterpillar swallows the chippings
and dust made in his tunneling progress through the wood. Throughout the
summer he thus eats his way, but in autumn prepares himself a broader
chamber, which he hangs with a fabric as thick as broadcloth, and
equally warm, composed of the raspings of wood scooped out of his cell,
and united with the strong silk, which every species of caterpillar can
spin.” For three or four years he thus continues in the tree chosen by
the parent moth for his abode, and then “with bulky body, and dusky
wings, from three to four inches in expansion, he is wont, about July,
to emerge from his wooden cell.”—_Acheta Domestica._
The muscular strength, very remarkable in the insect tribes, is
surprisingly great in the goat moth. The number of muscles in the human
body is reckoned at 529; but in this caterpillar, not so large as a
man’s finger, there are 4061! Mr. Rennie relates that he once put a goat
moth caterpillar under a glass bell weighing nearly half a pound, “yet
it raised it up with the utmost ease.” A book weighing four pounds was
then placed over the bell, and still the creature made good his escape
by raising both book and glass! The name of this insect is derived from
its peculiar odor. It is not found in America, although we have several
moths partially resembling it, and among others, “_Cossus Macmurtri_.”
_Hummingbird Hawk-moth._—The reader is probably aware that the name of
sphinx was given to one of the three divisions of insects of the
butterfly tribe, from the singular habit of their caterpillars, which
raise the upper portions of their bodies in an erect position, and
continue thus motionless for hours at a time, resembling, as Linnæus
fancied, the statues of the Egyptian Sphinx. These caterpillars produce
moths of a peculiar form, not unlike birds in their shape and movement.
In England, they are rather rare; but our American species are quite
common in some parts of the country. This hawk-moth is one of those
insects given to wandering; it has been frequently taken several miles
from land in the English Channel, and is observed to take flight sea-
ward of its own accord in calm, pleasant days, when there is no wind to
compel a movement in that direction.
_The Admirable, vanessa atalanta._—Here we have another beautiful
butterfly, found on both continents. The caterpillar feeds on the
stinging nettle; from the leaves of which it makes itself a little tent,
or dwelling, where it leads a solitary life, until at the end of a month
it passes into the chrysalis state.
_Blue Argus, p. argus_, is not, we believe, found in America, nor is it
very common in England. It has a broad band of crimson on its lower
wings, while the general color is azure blue.
_Marbled Butterfly, p. galathea_, is also, we understand, unknown in
America. The wings are black, finely marked with spots of white and
yellow. The caterpillar feeds on grass.
_Brown Meadow Butterfly, p. janira._—Also unknown in America, it is
said.
_Peacock Butterfly, vanessa Io._—This is considered as one of the most
beautiful of European insects, in form and coloring; black, and reddish
brown, marked with eyelets of yellow and blue, being its usual tints.
The caterpillars are produced from eggs laid on the leaves of nettles;
they are black and spiny. They live in company, providing themselves
with a common tent or web, where they seek shelter during the night, and
from the rains, to which they are very sensitive. The peacock butterfly
is found throughout Europe, but is rare in England. The reader is
probably aware that Linnæus gave to the butterfly family, in its largest
sense, the name of Lepidoptera, or scalywings, from the minute scales,
resembling dust to the naked eye, with which their wings are covered.
Diminutive as these scales are, they are yet perfect in their order and
formation, when examined by a microscope. The wing of a peacock
butterfly was submitted to this scrutiny, and the scales actually
counted by a patient observer; a quarter of an inch square was cut from
the wing and placed under the instrument, when seventy rows of scales
were counted on it, ninety to each row, so that a single square inch
must contain 100,936 of these minute scales!
The peacock butterfly is unknown in America.
NOTE BB.
THE GLOW-WORM, (_lampyris noctiluca_) p. 206.
“Our English glow-worm, as we presume most people are aware, is the
wingless female of a winged beetle, which also carries a light, though
one of much inferior lustre.”
“It is supposed by some, that the light of the wingless beetle is
bestowed for her protection, to scare away her hungry foes, the
nightingale and other birds of night; it is opined by others, that the
insect’s gift of brilliancy, like many of the like bestowed upon
mankind, is the very means of her destruction, the very lure and light
by which her biped foes are assisted to discover and devour her.” So
writes the author of Acheta Domestica when speaking of the glow-worm of
England.
This little creature is farther described as having “a tiny head,” “a
slate-colored, oblong, flat, and wingless body, all divided into rings,
and bearing at its nether extremity, the _lamp_—by night, a lustrous
emerald, by day, a dull pale spot, composed of the sulphur-colored
substance which supplies the light.”
“The female,” says another writer, “deposits her eggs in June or July,
among moss or grass. These are yellow in color, and emit a ray of light.
In five or six weeks the larvæ appear; they are at first white and
small, but become darker as they increase in size. The body is formed of
eleven rings, has six feet, and a double row of reddish spots, emitting
light in the dark, from the last ring; in this stage, the creature
creeps about, and the light which accompanies it is of use in showing it
the snails, dead insects, &c., on which it feeds.” They frequently cast
their skins, and it is only at the end of twenty-one months that they
attain their full size. They then cease to eat, and assume the _pupa_ or
second stage of insect life in which they remain two or three weeks,
when, throwing off their skin covering, they appear in their complete
state: the male a perfect beetle with wings, and wing covers; the female
without these appendages, being larger, and emitting a brighter light
than the larva, from the last three rings of the body.
It has been proved that the light of the glow-worm “is unsupported by
chemical action; is not connected with animal life; the luminous matter
is not adherent exteriorly, but included in a capsule; it seems
connected with peculiar organization, and is suspended by cold. The only
control which the insect shows over it, is evinced by withdrawing the
luminous matter temporarily from the transparency through which it
shines”—_Murray’s Experimental Researches—Philosophical Magazine._
The glow-worm is seldom seen in Scotland, and is not common beyond the
northern counties of England. The light which these insects emit, is of
a dull bluish or greenish color, and altogether, the effect they produce
is far inferior to that of our American fire-fly, _Lampyris Corusca_.
NOTE CC.
THE SLOW-WORM, (_anguis fragilis_) p. 210.
They have in England a singular reptile, resembling a snake in its
appearance, but in reality, more of a lizard in character, and belonging
to a group called _Saurophidia_, or lizard-snakes. This is the slow-
worm, or blind-worm, alluded to in the text. It is a scaly creature,
about twelve or fifteen inches in length, sluggish in its habits, and
perfectly harmless: Although frequently called the blind-worm, it has
small, but very brilliant eyes. Its food consists of worms, beetles, &c.
It burrows in the earth, sleeping away most of the cold weather. A
singular characteristic of this creature is its _brittleness_, whence
the epithet of _fragilis_. When frightened or irritated, it forcibly
contracts its muscles, and if the slightest attempt is made to bend it,
or a trifling blow be given, it literally breaks asunder!
The slow-worm is common in Europe, and in the adjacent parts of Asia
also.
In England this slow-worm, with two lizards, and two snakes, the common
or ringed snake and the viper, make up the entire list of reptiles found
in the country.
NOTE DD.
THE DORR, OR CLOCK-BEETLE, (_geotrupes stercorarius_) p. 217.
This insect, familiar to us Americans from our reading, is not found in
our own country. It much resembles, however, our common rolling beetles
in its appearance, and these are closely allied to the far-famed sacred
Scarabæus of the old Egyptians.
The clock, or dorr, “is broad, short, and clumsy”—“black in the upper
parts, but with wing-cases tipped with violet, while the legs and under
surface are steely blue, glossed with green and purple.”
“To look at the unsullied polish of his mail, one might suppose him
risen, like the green gold-chafer, from a bed of roses; whereas, being a
true Scarabæus in nature, if not in name, there is little doubt, when we
see him in his waving flight, of his having left recently a bed of a
very opposite description—a bed in short of dung—wherein through the
live-long day he has been reposing, or whereat, like his Egyptian
prototype, he has been hard at work, helping, perhaps, his partner to
roll masses for the enclosure of her eggs, or to bore holes for their
reception.”—_Acheta Domestica._
The dorr is one of those creatures which seek safety in feigning death;
when touched, it immediately drops to the earth, stiff and apparently
lifeless, suffering itself to be handled without the least sign of
animation; but when left to itself, it will in a moment resume its
faculties, and take flight again.
It is possible that some American reader, familiar with the epithet
“shard-borne beetle,” may not be aware that the word _shard_ signifies a
fragment of pottery, this insect being often found among rubbish of that
kind, or about loose stones.
Such is the dorr, which, in the summer evenings of England, “wheels his
droning flight.”
NOTE EE.
THE DEATH’S-HEAD MOTH, (_acherontia atropos_) p. 222.
This noted moth is one of the most remarkable of European insects. It is
the largest of its genus, measuring, when its wings are fully expanded,
nearly five inches in breadth. The prevailing colors of its upper wings
are dark but rich waves of brown and black, broken by lighter touches
and marked with a single white spot. The lower wings are yellowish,
barred with black. The head and throat are dark; upon the upper portions
of the throat, and on the body, are stamped with singular distinctness,
a _death’s-head_ and collar bones, such as are usually represented in
mortuary devices. It is in consequence of these markings that the
Death’s-head Moth has become an object of terror to the superstitious.
Reaumur mentions a whole convent of nuns being driven to their wits end
by the sudden appearance of one of these strange insects flying in at a
dormitory window, of a summer’s evening. They never showed themselves
formerly without causing more or less alarm. In addition to the singular
mark on their bodies, these moths are also endowed with a peculiar gift,
held to be almost miraculous by the wondering vulgar; when at all
disturbed or irritated, they utter a cry which has been compared to that
of a bat. The cause of this sound uttered by an insect whose race is
wholly silent, has been a subject of much doubt and controversy; the
best opinion would seem that it is produced by the vibration of two
horny scales fixed on the thorax and covering a small aperture. To add
to the character of this ominous moth, another naturalist has observed
that the chrysalis, unlike that of others, is always buried in the
earth, and enwrapped in a shroud-like garment.
The caterpillar of the Death’s-head is large, and brilliantly colored;
yellow, obliquely barred with green, and spotted at intervals with blue
and black. It has the usual horn-like tail of the caterpillars of the
hawk-moth family. It feeds by preference on the leaves of the potato,
and those of the jessamine; and is also found on hemp and woody night-
shade. The tea-tree is another of its favorites, but, of course, in
Europe, this last fancy can not often be indulged. They generally lie
concealed by day, among the herbage, or in the earth. In August, they
assume the chrysalis state, being wrapped in their tissue shrouds; and
in September or October, appears the perfect and ominous moth, which, in
some countries, has been called the “wandering bird.” When they first
emerge from their gauze-like shrouds, their wings are not more than a
finger-nail in breadth, but in the course of an hour or two, they are
stretched and dilated to their full size.
The Death’s-head Moth is a great enemy to the bees, being exceedingly
fond of honey. Mr. Huber dwells at length upon the singular sagacity of
the little hive people in defending their stores against this intruder.
The bees, at a first night attack of the Death’s-head, appear quite
paralyzed with fear, and make no attempts to meet the invader; but the
creature has hardly filled himself, and taken flight again, before they
begin to erect a waxen wall within their gates, merely leaving one
little aperture just large enough to allow of the passage of a single
bee at a time, and of course the baffled moth, on appearing again before
their camp, is compelled to beat a retreat. The account given by Mr.
Huber of the defences raised by the bees, on these occasions, is very
interesting; he observes that these moths were so common in 1804, and
committed their devastations on so large a scale, that it attracted
general attention, and the owners of apiaries determined to defend the
mouths of the hives; when preparing to carry out their plans, however,
they discovered that in many instances the bees had already taken the
same course, human reason, and insect instinct producing the same
result. The variety of these bee fortifications was also very
remarkable, as they differed in almost every hive; walls, or arcades, or
masked gateways, of various constructions, were raised with great speed
and singular skill. The fact that the bees did not make war upon the
moths with their usual arm, the sting, has been conjectured by Mr.
Huber, to proceed, possibly, from the resemblance between the cry of the
Death’s-head, and that of their own queen bee when captured, which, it
is well known, always throws the entire band of working bees into
disorder and confusion.
The Death’s-head moth is not found in America. This is rather singular,
as the favorite food of its caterpillar is the potato, an American
vegetable, formerly unknown in Europe. The Sphinx Chionanthi, one of our
American moths, resembles it in size; but the larvæ, and the markings of
the moth itself, are wholly different.
NOTE FF.
“AMERICAN BLIGHT,” (_aphis lanata_) p. 236.
This blight has been a very great pest of the orchards, in some
countries of Europe, especially in parts of France, England, and the
Netherlands. In 1810, so many of the cider apples of Gloucestershire
were infested with it, that it was feared cider-making would have to be
abandoned in that region. Sir Joseph Banks appears to have given the
insect the name of “American blight,” being led to believe it had not
come from France, and supposing that it had been imported from America
with some apple-trees, planted in a nursery at Chelsea. An English
writer on orchards says, “I have from good authority heard that it was
brought to this country from France, in the reign of Louis XIV., when a
colony of refugees settled at Paddington, and there it was first
observed to begin its depredations on apple-trees.” This last account is
far more likely to be correct, since the insect has been very common in
France, while in America, we hear so little of it, that it is scarcely
known to any but entomologists, and nursery men.
Dr. Fitch, in the Annual Report on the State Cabinet of Natural History
of New York, dated 1851, says of this aphis: “Commonly, only solitary
individuals are found, and in but one instance have I met with it
clustered, and covering a limb, as described by foreign writers.”
It is rather remarkable that as warm seasons are said to favor its
increase, our warmer summers should not have rendered it more
troublesome in this country; possibly our colder winters may have a
counteracting effect, although, as a general rule, insects with their
larvæ and eggs, will bear great extremes of cold.
NOTE GG.
THE HOLLY, (_Ilex_) p. 247.
We have in America two kinds of holly. One, _Ilex montana_, or Mountain
Holly, is found on the Alleghanies, and the Catskills, and is seldom
more than a straggling shrub, from eight to twenty feet in height. The
_Ilex opaca_, or American Holly, strictly speaking, is a tree from
twenty to fifty feet in height, found in most woodlands from Maine to
the Southern States, where it is more common than in the northern parts
of the country. It is far, however, from being a familiar tree to most
Americans, whose acquaintance with the holly is apt to be more connected
with their English reading, than with the reality. The foliage of the
holly of this continent is less glossy, and the berries are less highly
colored than those of the European tree.
NOTE HH.
TO WILT, page 249.
The verb to “_wilt_” thus noticed by Mr. Knapp, as an English
provincialism, is very generally used in America, and perhaps deserves a
word of defence more than most terms of the kind preserved among us. It
would seem to have a meaning of its own, scarcely expressed by any other
synonym; it signifies neither to “wither,” to “blight,” to “die,” nor to
“decay.” If we understand the word rightly, it means something of
debility and drooping, akin to faintness in animal life, and implying
the capability of restoration. There is thus a shade of distinction in
the word, which at times may approach to poetical delicacy, and which
redeems it from a place with others of the same class.
To “hawl,” or “haul,” is also placed among the provincialisms of his
neighborhood by Mr. Knapp, p. 52; but this, assuredly, is a good English
word. Johnson gives the derivation from the French _haler_, and the
Dutch _halen_, to draw. It is a very common word among us, and, with
Johnson for our authority, we need not give it up.