ferent forms of the caterpillars of the Tau moth of Europe, which are
figured by Duponchel and Godard, we find that the very young larva has
four horn-like processes on the front, and four on the back part of the
body. The full grown larva of the Regalis moth, of the Southern and
Middle states, is very similarly ornamented. It is an embryonic form,
and therefore inferior in rank to the Tau moth. Multiply these horns
over the surface of the body, lessen their size, and crown them with
hairs, and we have our Io moth, so destructive to corn. Now take off the
hairs, elongating and thinning out the tubercles, and make up the loss
by the increased size of the worm, and we have the caterpillar of our
common Cecropia moth. Again, remove the naked tubercles almost wholly,
smooth off the surface of the body, and contract its length, thus giving
a greater convexity and angularity to the rings, and we have before us
the larva of the stately Luna moth that tops this royal family. Here are
certain criteria for placing these insects before our minds in the order
that nature has placed them. We have certain facts for determining which
of these three insects is highest and which lowest in the scale, when we
see the larva of the Luna moth throwing off successively the Io and
Cecropia forms to take on its own higher features. So that there is a
meaning in all this shifting of insect toggery.

This is but an example of the many ways in which both pleasure and
mental profit may be realized from the thoughtful study of caterpillar
life.

In collecting butterflies and moths for cabinet specimens, one needs a
gauze net a foot and a half deep, with the wire frame a foot in
diameter; a wide-mouthed bottle containing a parcel of cyanide of
potassium gummed on the side, in which to kill the moths, which should,
as soon as life is extinct, be pinned in a cork-lined collecting box
carried in the coat pocket. The captures should then be spread and dried
on a grooved setting board, and a cabinet formed of cork-lined boxes or
drawers; as a substitute for cork, frames with paper tightly stretched
over them may be used, or the pith of corn-stalks or palm wood.
Caterpillars should be preserved in spirits, or in glycerine with a
little alcohol added.

Some persons ingeniously empty the skins and inflate them over a flame
so that they may be pinned by the side of the adult.

Some of the most troublesome and noxious insects are found among the
moths. I n