Moths of the Limberlost | Page 3

the names by which I knew them in
childhood, or that we of Limberlost Cabin have bestowed upon them.
There is a wide gulf between a Naturalist and a Nature Lover. A
Naturalist devotes his life to delving into stiff scientific problems
concerning everything in nature from her greatest to her most minute

forms. A Nature Lover works at any occupation and finds recreation in
being out of doors and appreciating the common things of life as they
appeal to his senses.
The Naturalist always begins at the beginning and traces family,
sub-family, genus and species. He deals in Latin and Greek terms of
resounding and disheartening combinations. At his hands anatomy and
markings become lost in a scientific jargon of patagia, jugum,
discocellulars, phagocytes, and so on to the end of the volume. For one
who would be a Naturalist, a rare specimen indeed, there are many
volumes on the market. The list of pioneer lepidopterists begins
authoritatively with Linnaeus and since his time you can make your
selection from the works of Druce, Grote, Strecker, Boisduval,
Robinson, Smith, Butler, Fernald, Beutenmuller, Hicks, Rothschild,
Hampson, Stretch, Lyman, or any of a dozen others. Possessing such an
imposing array of names there should be no necessity to add to them.
These men have impaled moths and dissected, magnified and located
brain, heart and nerves. After finishing the interior they have given to
the most minute exterior organ from two to three inches of Latin name.
From them we learn that it requires a coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia,
tarsus, ungues, pulvillus, and anterior, medial and posterior spurs to
provide a leg for a moth. I dislike to weaken my argument that more
work along these lines is not required, by recording that after all this,
no one seems to have located the ears definitely. Some believe hearing
lies in the antennae. Hicks has made an especial study of a fluid filled
cavity closed by a membrane that he thinks he has demonstrated to be
the seat of hearing. Leydig, Gerstaecker, and others believe this same
organ to be olfactory. Perhaps, after all, there is room for only one
more doctor of science who will permanently settle this and a few other
vexing questions for us.
But what of the millons of Nature Lovers, who each year snatch only a
brief time afield, for rest and recreation? What of the masses of men
and women whose daily application to the work of life makes vacation
study a burden, or whose business has so broken the habit of study that
concentration is distasteful if not impossible? These people number in
the ratio of a million to one Naturalist. They would be delighted to

learn the simplest name possible for the creatures they or their friends
find afield, and the markings, habits, and characteristics by which they
can be identified. They do not care in the least for species and minute
detail concerning anatomy, couched in resounding Latin and Greek
terms they cannot possibly remember.
I never have seen or heard of any person who on being shown any one
of ten of our most beautiful moths, did not consider and promptly
pronounce it the most exquisite creation he ever had seen, and evince a
lively interest in its history. But when he found it necessary to purchase
a text-book, devoid of all human interest or literary possibility, and
wade through pages of scientific dissertation, all the time having the
feeling that perhaps through his lack of experience his identification
was not aright, he usually preferred to remain in ignorance. It is in the
belief that all Nature Lovers, afield for entertainment or instruction,
will be thankful for a simplification of any method now existing for
becoming acquainted with moths, that this book is written and
illustrated.
In gathering the material used I think it is quite true that I have lost as
many good subjects as I have secured, in my efforts to follow the
teachings of scientific writers. My complaint against them is that they
neglect essential detail and are not always rightly informed. They
confuse one with a flood of scientific terms describing minute
anatomical parts and fail to explain the simple yet absolutely essential
points over which an amateur has trouble, wheat often only a few
words would suffice.
For example, any one of half a dozen writers tells us that when a
caterpillar finishes eating and is ready to go into winter quarters it
crawls rapidly around for a time, empties the intestines, and
transformation takes place. Why do not some of them explain further
that a caterpillar of, say, six inches in length will shrink to THREE, its
skin become loosened, the horns drop limp, and the,creature appear
dead and disintegrating? Because no one mentioned these things, I
concluded that