Part 30

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.

Let it not be supposed from the previous remarks, that as a general thing, the writer is in favor of keeping up the provincialisms of our language; far from this, it appears to us that as the English tongue spreads wider and wider over the earth, it becomes a more imperative duty among those who use it, to preserve their common speech in all its purity.

NOTE II. FAIRY RINGS, page 251.

There are two sorts of circular marks on the turf bearing this name in England. “One kind about seven yards in diameter, containing a round, bare path, a foot broad, with green grass in the midst of it.” “The other varying in size, is marked by a circumference of grass, greener and fresher than the rest.” Some writers have attributed these rings to the fertilizing effects of a particular mushroom growing in circles; while others hold them to be produced by electricity.

It is well known that on the American prairies, there are broad rings, the origin of which has been disputed by different travelers, and to which the name of “fairy rings,” has also been given. One of the writers on that region, has accounted for them very naturally, and if his report be correct, we have not much ground for indulging in the poetical fancy that they are the tracks of the fairies dancing “their ringlets to the whistling wind.” Mr. Catlin believes them to be nothing more than the “wallows” of the buffalo.

“In the heat of summer these huge animals ... often graze on the low grounds of the prairies, where there is a little stagnant water lying amongst the grass, and the ground underneath, being saturated with it, is soft, into which the enormous bull, lowered down upon one knee, will plunge his horns and at last his head ... soon making an excavation in the ground, into which the water filters from among the grass, forming for him in a few moments, a cool and comfortable bath.... By this operation, which is done perhaps in the space of half an hour, a circular excavation of fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, and two feet in depth is completed, and left for the water to run into, which soon fills it to the level of the ground.... To these sinks, the waters lying on the surface of the prairies are continually draining and lodging in them their vegetable deposits, which, after a lapse of years, fill them up to the surface with a rich soil, which throws up an unusual growth of grass and herbage, forming conspicuous circles which arrest the eye of the traveler.” Mr. C. farther adds that “these strange circles often occur in groups, and of different sizes.”—_Catlin’s N. A. Indians_, Vol. I. p. 249.

NOTE JJ. ÆCIDIUM, page 255.

Æcidium is a genus of minute parasitic plants, belonging to the order of Fungi. They are found upon the leaves, the bark, and even upon the flowers of living plants, but are altogether distinct from the cuticle of the vegetable on which they have their growth. They are always tubular in their form. On the weeds and trees of northern countries they are very common, and a great many species have attracted the attention of botanists, while to the careless eye, they often appear like the nests of some small insect. The common fancy among farmers that the barberry-bush is injurious to wheat, producing rust in the grain, is owing to an æcidium growing on the barberry, which covers its leaves with a bright, orange powder. The only resemblance, however, between the rust of wheat and the barberry blight lies in the color. The rust in wheat, is in fact another, and a wholly different species of this same genus æcidium; it is called by botanists, _Puccinia graminis_. Another common æcidium is that of the pear-tree, which has received the name of _Peridia_.

NOTE KK. POLLARDING TREES, page 267.