e with anyone of the six hundred and
fifty-two different kinds of butterflies in the United States.

[Illustration: Larva getting ready to transform]

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: Caterpillar to chrysalis]

Other Insects

There are many more different kinds of insects than there are of
flowering plants, and if we were to add together all of the different
kinds of birds, mammals, reptiles, fi