The same thing may be done with anyone of the six hundred and fifty-two different kinds of butterflies in the United States.
Larva getting ready to transform
Full grown larva
Moths
When it comes to moths, there is a much greater variety.
Instead of six hundred and fifty-two, there are fifty-nine hundred and seventy in Doctor Dyar's big catalogue. Perhaps the most interesting of these caterpillars are the big native silk-worms, like those of the cecropia moth, the luna moth, the polyphemus moth, or the promethia moth. These caterpillars are very large and are to be found feeding upon the leaves of different trees, and all spin strong silken cocoons. People have tried to reel these cocoons, thinking that they might be able to use the silk to make silk cloth as with the domestic silk-worm of commerce, but they have been unable to reel them properly. The polyphemus moth, for example, has been experimented with a great deal. It is found over a greater part of the United States, and its caterpillar feeds upon a great variety of trees and shrubs such as oak, Butternut, hickory, basswood, elm, maple, birch, chestnut, sycamore, and many others. The caterpillar is light green and has raised lines of silvery white on the side. It grows to a very large size and spins a dense, hard cocoon, usually attached to leaves. There {104} are two generations in the Southern states, and one in the Northern states. The moth which comes out of the cocoon has a wing spread of fully five inches. It is reddish-gray or somewhat buff in color with darker bands near the edge of the wings, which themselves are pinkish on the outside, and with a large clear spot near the centre of the forewing and a regular eyespot (clear in part and blue in the rest) in the centre of the hind wing.
One wishing to know about butterflies and moths should consult a book entitled, "How to Know the Butterflies," by Prof. J. H. Comstock of Cornell University and his wife, Mrs. Comstock, published by D. Appleton & Co., of New York, or, "The Butterfly Book," by Dr. W. J. Holland of Pittsburg, published by Doubleday, Page & Co., of New York, and "The Moth Book," also by Doctor Holland, and published by the same firm.
