Scientific American Supplement, No. 344, August 5, 1882Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 344, August 5, 1882
Various
Science -- Periodicals
One larva on fourth stage was different from all others, and was
described at the British Museum by Mr. W. F. Kirby as follows: "Larva
reddish-brown, sparingly clothed with long slender white hairs, with
four reddish stripes on the face, two rows of red spots on the back,
spiracles surrounded with yellow, black and red rings; legs red, prolegs
black, spotted with red. On segments three and four are four long
coral-red fleshy-branched spines, two on each segment, below which, on
each side, are two rudimentary ones just behind the head; in front of
segment two are four similar rudimentary orange spines or tubercles;
last segment black, strongly granulated and edges triangularly above and
at the sides, with coral-red; several short rudimentary fleshy spines
rising from the red portion; the last segment but one is reddish above,
with a short red spine in the middle, and the one before it has a long
coral-red spine in the middle similar to those of segments three and
four, but shorter"
As soon as my Imperialis larvæ had hatched, I gave them various kinds of
foliage, plane-tree, oak, pine, sallow, etc. At first they did not touch
any kind of foliage, or they did not seem to touch any; and I was afraid
I should be unable to rear them; but on the second or third day of their
existence, they made up their minds and decided upon eating the foliage
of some of the European trees I had offered them. They attacked oak,
sallow, and pine, but did not touch the plane-tree leaves. In America,
the larvæ of Imperialis feed on button-wood, which is the American
plane-tree (_Platanus occidentalis_), yet they did not take to _Platanus
orientalis_. After a little time I reduced the foliage to oak and sallow
branches, and ultimately gave them the sallow (_Salix caprea_) only, on
which they thrived very well. I was pleased with this success; as I had
previously read in a volume of the "Naturalist's Library" a description
of _Ceratocampa imperialis_, which ends as follows: "The caterpillars
are not common, and are the most difficult to bring to perfection in
confinement, as they will not eat in that situation; and, even if they
change into a chrysalis, they die afterward."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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