Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1900-09-13
Insects in Winter.

lived at best. Many uleS 1--we out
day. The excitement>of escaping ex-
termination and rearing their young
rounds out an existence of twenty
four hours. Nature, in appreciation
of their short career, has provided them
with compound eyes, which see about
on all sides, a marvelously accurate
scent and a facility of flight which is
the aggravation of him who dozes at
MONDAY and who tries to catch that
one fly. When autumn comes the
death knell of millions of flies has
sounded. They make no preparation
for winter The majority die, and
their insignificant bodies are blown
away by the passing breeze. A few
hardy survivors linger in cracks in
the walls, creep under the door frames,
or in crevices in the woodwork. 1t
is probable that eggs are laid, larvae
hatched and other flies creep from the
metamorphosed maggots during the
winter. But some naturalists assert
that the few lingering flies are the
parents Of the multitude that appear
in the warm days Of June. The eggs
they lay are numberless
Katydids, grasshoppers, locusts,
walking sticks" crickets and beetles
are killed by the frost. The eggs hid
den in the ground or concealed in the
bark Of trees furnish the supply for
the next year. The cold retards the
development of the egg, which matches
in the warm days Of spring. Some
times an unusually cold winter plays
havoc with the dormant insect life,
but the cunning of nature strengthens
the frail eggshell against the power
of heat and cold alike, until the secret
alchemy of the sun stirs the budding
life and bids it come forth.
Beetles exhibit wonderful instinct
in caring for their helpless young.
Among a certain species the eggs are
rolled in balls of material suitable for
food. The balls are packed away in
a nest to await the voracious appetites
of the infant beetle that must eat its
way out. The burying or sexton
beetles deposit their eggs in the bodies
of dead birds or field mice. They
then set to work and perform the
proper rites of burial, heaping the
earth over the body of the dead.
The young beetle hatched from the
egg finds a store of food awaiting him
on his arrival in the world.
Butterflies and moths are victims
of cold weather, though in some in
stances it has been proven that they
have great powers of endurance. Both
butterflies and moths live in the re-
gion Of glaciers in the high Alps, and
a certain species is found futtering
about on the summit of Mount Wash
ington and amid eternal snow. These
butterflies and moths are intimately
associated with the gentians and 9TH
er flowers belonging to these lofty al
titudes, and act as aids in cross fertil-
ization.
Our temperate zone boasts Of one or
two winter butterflies warmly clothed
in microscopic feathers. And on
cherries February and March days
these blithesome heralds of spring
come. But what has become of the
butterflies and moths of the vanished
summertide? They are gay yet
thrifty folk in looking out for the
future Of their race. Search the gar
den and cocoons and crysalids are
found in all sorts Of shapes and condi-
tions. Angular and ovoid, short and
thick, long and thin, suspended by
the head, or by the tail, head down
ward hung horizontally in curled
leaf, like the darling baby in the tree
top; tucked. away under sort Of web
coverlet on the sheltered side Of the
gate post, or under the edge Of the
sidewalk, within the warm corner Of a
knothole, or crack in the boards,
under the bark of the trees, in cozy
crotch Of the twigs, and even buried
in the ground. The delicate yet firm
silken threads bind them to the top
most branches, where, exposed to
sleet, snow and rain, whirled about
by every bowling blast, they defy the
winter.
The butterfly and moth lay eggs in
a suitable feeding ground during the
early summer. The Matched larva or
caterpillar eats voraciously, gorging
itself until it can eat no more. Or, if
too fat for further ezertion, it spins a
cocoon and makes ready for winter.
During the winter it apparently slum-
bers in its snug quarters, nourished