Sometimes in the construction of a burrow, after a certain depth has been reached, the young Cicindela meets with a difficulty which he had not expected. A flat stone is encountered, and thus further progress in a vertical direction is prevented. If the obstacle, on account of its size, cannot be gone round, and the shaft is not deep enough for his purpose, it is not unusual for him to desert it and attempt the tunnelling of a home in some more desirable spot. He does not undertake a very long journey, for he knows too well the risk which he runs by so doing, as he is in danger of being assaulted by secret foes in the rear, an attack which the peculiar conformation of his hinder body ill fits him to resist. On land he is timid and cowardly, and well might he be, but within the protecting walls of his underground castle, with a pair of powerful swords with which to defend himself, he is the impersonation of fearlessness and courage. When fully grown the larva closes up the mouth of its abode, and in quiet and solitude undergoes its metamorphosis, lying dormant during the winter months. But when the breath of warm spring days has melted the icy coldness of the earth, and filled the air with vivifying influences, then comes it forth in all the pomp and splendor of its nature--a winged existence. It has been seen what a beautiful adaptation of means to an end is shown by the young Cicindela. Even the adult, or mature form, with its long, slender legs, so admirably formed for silence and fleetness of movement, which are alike necessary to pursuit of prey and escape from enemies, displays the wisdom of Him who breathed into all animated nature, no matter how small or how humble, the essence of His being, and endowed one and all with qualities of mind and body which should respond to environing conditions and thus prepare them to survive in the struggle for existence. QUEEN OF AMERICAN SILK-SPINNERS. No insect affords a better proof of high art in nature, and of the transcendent beauty of the Creator’s thoughts, than the Luna moth, which is as preëminent above her fellows as her namesake, the fair empress of the sky, above the lesser lights that dominate the night. Her elegant robes of green, set off with trimmings of purple, and jewelled with diamonds, added to her queenly grace and personal charms, will always distinguish her from the _profanum vulgus_ of the articulata. And now for a short biographical sketch of this remarkable beauty from the cradle to the grave, and beyond, after she has assumed her resurrection-attire, to the day when, her appointed work on earth being ended, she quietly lays her body down to mingle with its native clay.