Part 21

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.