VOL. XXI.
. '".. J.l..ru
_-
POLIS, IND., SATURDAY, OOT. 30,1886.
NO. 44
Written for the Indiana Farmer.
Some Indiana Butterflies.—No. 2.
BY W. 8. BLATCHIsEY.
Butterflies and moths taken together
form one of the seven great classes or
orders into ■which ail true insects are divided. The name of their order is Lepi-
doptera from two Greek words, meaning
scale-winged, as their wings, both above
and below, are covered with what to the
naked eye appears to be dust, but under
the microscope proves to be minute, colored scales which overlap one another like
the scales of a fish.
Before one of these insects arrives at the
perfect state in which we know it as a
butterfly or moth, as the case may be, it
has to undergo three complete changes or
transformations.
side of each of joints two, three and four,
is a pair of legs which in time form the
legs of the perfect insect. The under side
of joints seven, eight, nine, ten and thirteen, bear respectively a pair of false legs
or props, which are thick and fleshy, without joints, and usually surrounded at the
end by numerous minute hooks, thus enabling the larva to firmly grasp almost
any object.
Butterflies are easily distinguished from
moths by the following characters: In
butterflies the autennae, those long,
jointed, thread-like appendages which
project ont from the head and are used as
feelers, are smooth and have a ball or
knob at the end, while in moths they are
usually branched like a feather and always without knobs. Again, butterflies
fly Dy day,  while moths fly  at night or
Seliothris armlger, the corn or boll worm—a and b, eggs; c, larva, or worm
imago, or perfect insect.
First, it leaves the egg as a larva or caterpillar; after a variable time, if it be the
larva of a butterfly, it changes its skin for
one that is shell-like, called a chrysalis; if
it be the larva of a moth it changes for one
that is soft and silky, called a cocoon.
While in the chrysalis, or cocoon state, it
is known as a pupa, and from this it
emerges as the perfect insect, or imago, by
which the eggs are laid, and which form
it keeps until its death. Before the larva
reaches its mature or full grown state,
from which it passes into that of the pupa,
it moults or changes its skin, just as a
snake or crayfish does, from four to six
times, each time coming forth with a
larger skin and usually with new and
brighter colors. Between these different
moults, in fact during its whole existence
as a larva, it feeds voraciously, and it is in
this state that many of the species, as the
cabbage worm, tobacco worm, cut worm,
canker worm, etc., are so injurious to vegetation. Indeed, the amount which a
larva can eat is sometimes surprising. A
Frenchman once weighed several caterpillars of the species Pieris rapae, which
feed on cabbage, and gave them bits of
cabbage leaves which weighed twice as
much as their bodies. In less than 24
hours they had entirely consumed them,
and meantime their weight had increased
one-tenth. Fancy a man whose weight is
160 pounds, eating in one day 320 pounds
of food, and gaining 16 pounds in weight.
The larv;e of butterflies are more or less
worm like or cylindrical in form, and each
one is composed of 13 joints or rings, the
first of which is the head.   On  the under
d, pupa, or chrysalis; c and f,
near the close of day, and butterflies, when
at rest hold the wings erect, but moths let
them slope downward or hold them horizontally.
Before proceeding; farther with the descriptions of the different species it will,
perhaps, be best to explain a few terms
which I have used in speaking of the
wings. Hold up the butterfly with the
head towards you and the edge next to
you is the front edge or margin, and the
one opposite that the hind edge or margin.
The portion of the wing joining the body
is the base and the edge opposite that is
the outer or terminal margin. The apex
of the wing is the corner or angle between
the front and outer margins. Most of the
descriptions of the larva, have been taken
from Mr. W. H. Edward's, "Butterflies of
North America," as I have not had opportunity of studying them myself. The
descriptions so copied are in quotation
marks.
family Nymphalidas.
This family is a very large one, being
represented in the vicinity of Bloomington, as far as known, by 22 species, belong-
to 14 genera and four sub-families.
The butterflies belonging to it are large
or medium sized, and may be easily told
from the PapUionidce the family treated of
in a preceding paper, by having no tails
to hind wings, and by having only four
feet adapted to walking, the two front legs
being short and slender.
sub-family Dananince.
10. Danais arehippus One of our largest
and most common butterflies, having the
upper surface of wings  reddish brown,
bordered all around with black. On the
outer edge of both wings this border contains two rows of small white spots.
Under side of hind wings pale, with
very black and prominent nerves.
The male is distinguished by having a
small black tubercle near middle of hind
wings. The larva is banded with black,
yellow, and white, and has two pairs of
black, fleshy, horns, the longest pair being
on third ring, and the other pair on
eleventh ring.   Food plant, milkweed.
This fly is found in greatest abundance
about June 1st, and September 10th,
when the two broods of the season, respectively, come forth. A few faded
specimens may, however, be seen in April
being individuals which have wintered in
the perfect state. The members of the first
brood frequent open pastures and clover
fields; those of the later brood, the vicinity
of golden rods and asters from which they
gather the honey.
On September 26th, in a beech woods
about three miles from town, I saw hundreds of the males of this species flying
about from tree to tree, and ever anon
alighting on some of the lower leaves
where they remained but a short time.
The cause of this flocking together of the
males I could not ascertain. Perhaps
some reader of the Farmer can explain
it.—Continued next week.
ttjenj Sc gtmiixer.
Give your name and postoffice when asking questions. Many queries go unanswered for failure to
observe this rule.
I have got me a new day book and I
want you to give me a good form. It is
big enough to hold all the profit and a part
of the loss. L. L. S.
We will try and give you a form for
ruling your day book before many weeks.
Is there any kind of a screen made to
put over the mouth of a tile drain to keep
out varments? J. F. Y.
Prairie Creek.
Yes, there are several patented devices
for this purpose, but you can make something that will answer the purpose from
a plan we will give in a future number of
the Farmer.
Can Mother Hen tell me what todo for
my chickens? Their heads are covered
with something like warts, and they go
blind and soon die. Cayenne pepper in
their feed does them no good. Fan.
Mauckport.
It is doubtless some form of roup, but
Mother Hen will give her opinion on the
case in next number.
pumpkin  it belongs  to him,   and please
send it along and avoid a lawsuit.
I rented my farm In Indiana to a man,
and made a contract with him, to keep the
buildings in such order as he found them.
He rented the house in which I kept my
farming Implements to a tenant, without
my consent or knowledge, by which means
the house got burned up. I had only
about one-third Insurance on it. Is not
my renter responsible to me for my loss?
A Reader.
If the fire was caused by the negligence
of the tenant or his sub-tenant the would be
liable for damage; otherwise not.
%&xxy fpipartrnjettl.
BY VINSON GARTER, ESQ., THIS OITY.
All our readers who are interested in
organizing a fish protecting association
should address W. H. Dye, Esq., at Philadelphia, Hancock Co,, who is working up
the matter, and will at an early day appoint a meeting in this city to take the
subject into consideration.
A has land that is not on a public road.
Will the law give him a road across the
lands of B and C to a public road, without
their consent? S. S.
Bridgeport.
No.. A will have to purchase a private
way on the best terms he can make.
We take your good paper in our home
Please advise us in this case: Neighbor B
has a pumpkin vine that has run through
the division fence between us, and produced a pumpkin on our Bide. Query,
whose pumpkin is it? J. S. H.
Howard Co.
Our legal  editor says if it is a good pie
Reports in Eastern papers state that
strawberries are being picked at several
poin ts along the Hudson river. Very good
but we have them in Indiana. Mr. Chas.
H. F. Mankedick, living three miles southeast of the city has just hasded us a nice
lot of handsome fully ripened strawberries
and says be has picked and sold several
.quarts of them since the middle of October. They are Cumberlands, and are as
large and sweet as those gathered In May.
At an early hour Monday morning an
attempt was made by four prisoners in
the Madison county jail at Anderson/to
effect an escape by means of dynamite.
The cartridge, furnished by some unknown person, was inserted into an opening intended for a stove flue, and Ignited
with a fuse. The Inner wall of the jail is
made of heavy stone slabs, which remained intact and prevented the prisoners'
escape, but the damage to the building
will reach fully $200.
Notes from Nebraska.
Editors IndTana Farmer:
Very dry here for the last five weeks
and prairie fires rage most of the time.
Almost every day some poor farmer has
grain stacks, barns, corn shocks, eto.,
burned. Every thing is as dry as powder,
and a very high wind most of the time,
but to-day we are having a fine rain.
Threshing not done yet. Corn husking
commenced about two weeks ago. Plenty
of good improved farms for sale here In
this county by farmers that are getting
discouraged with hard times, small prices
of grain, eto. They will sell out cheap for
cash. Our fair was a grand success except
fruit. Very few specimens of apples were
shown and no other fruit at all. Stock
was especially good. Table comforts and
fancy work by the load. F. F.
Boone Co., Neb., Oct. 22.
American makers of agricultural implements are pushing their business with
such activity in foreign countries that the
British consuls are compelled to write letters of an alarming character to their government.
A Vienna writing-master has written 40
French words on a grain of wheat that are
said to be easily legible for good eyes, it
has been placed in a glass case and presented to the French academy of sciences.