Molt

“ Molt.—The Marianas Crow molts in the period from May to August or September. Most of the birds taken by the NAMRU2 party in this period were in the process of molt. Skins obtained at Rota in late October also exhibit signs of molt. Specimens taken in December, January and February are in fresh or slightly worn plumage. The crow presents an exceedingly shabby appearance in molt, because the grayish and whitish basal parts of the feathers are exposed.
Food habits.—The crow is an omnivorous feeder. Stomachs examined contained both plant and animal food. ”

“ MidHG. môltwërf, moltwërfe, m., ‘mole,’ lit. ‘the animal that throws up the soil’ (MidHG. molte, f.) . The ModHG. form is a corruption of the MidHG. word, which is recorded even in the MidHG. and OHG. periods in various forms (MidHG. mûwërf, mûlwërf, mûlwëlf, mûrwërf) . Other ModHG. corrupt forms are the dial. Moltwurm, Maulwurm, and Maulwolf. OHG. moltwerf, multwurf, m., ‘mole,’ are connected with MidHG. molte, f., molt, m., ‘dust, mould, soil,’ OHG. molta, f., molt, m.; comp. Goth. ”

“ It is not so with the molt, for it is useless as food, and like the detached wings with which it is always associated, is light and easily floated by rains into streams and rivers, and thence carried by currents into larger bodies of water, where permanent deposits are accumulating. Both wings and molts are fairly resistant to decay, and thus more readily preserved than are the softer parts of the body. ”

“ In some individuals a gray patch on the nape remained but emerging hair was not apparent; perhaps the molt had been halted just prior to completion. The progressing band of emerging hair is narrow in most specimens but in some up to one-fifth of the circumference of the body has hair at the same degree of emergence. Subsequent molts, both from postjuvenal to adult pelage and between adult pelages, are less regular in point, or points, of origin, width of progressing molt, and amount of surface molting at one time. ”

“ With the exception of a synoptic collection presented to the Departamento de la Fauna Silvestre, Dirección General de Caza, México, D.F., all of the specimens mentioned are in the museum at the University of Kansas.
Unless otherwise indicated, specimens taken were not molting. For birds undergoing postnuptial or postjuvenal molt, the degree of advancement of the molt is indicated by the numbers of primaries and rectrices that are new or partly ensheathed. Information on the condition of the testes refers to the left testis unless otherwise noted. ”

“ Adults have an incomplete prenuptial molt, involving the body plumage, some wing coverts, scapulars, and tertials, in late winter and early spring, and a complete postnuptial molt in July and August. Fall birds are much more richly colored than spring adults. ”

“ As the creature grows too large for its skin, this is dispensed with; molting, as the process is called, taking place from four to 20 times, according to the species. Cast-off skins are frequently to be found. ”

“ Only bi a subsequent separation of this cuticula, allowing another period of growth in the cells of the body wall, can the form and the external organs of the adult be perfected. With another molt, therefore, the fully formed insect is at last set free, and it now re- quires only a short time for the expansion of the legs and wings to their normal size and shape and for the hardening of the final cuticular layer which will preserve the contours of the adult. ”

“ Conversely, if the new muscles are not perfected at the rime of the last normal molt, the insect must have an extra molt later in order to give the muscles a functional connection with the body wall. Thus Poyarkoff would explain the origin of the pupal stage in the lire cycle of the insect. His theory has much to commend it, for, as Poyarkoff shows in an analysis of the various processes accompanying metamorphosis, none of the cha.nges in any of the organs other than the muscles would seem to necessitate the production of a new cutic- ula and thus involve an added molt. ”

“ It is important to understand the process of molting as it takes place in the grasshopper, because the processes of metamorphosis, such as those which accomplish the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly, differ only in degree from those that accompany the shedding of the skin between any two stages of the grasshopper's life. The principal growth of the insect is made during those resting periods preceding the molts. ”

“ The entire pupal stage is divided bi the last molting of the young into a propupal period, still occupying the loosened cuticula of the insect in its last adolescent stage, and a true pupal period, which is that between the shedding of this last skin of the young and the final molt which discloses the matured insect. All insects that undergo a metamorphosis may be divided, therefore, into two classes according as the trans- formation from the young into the adult is direct or is COlnpleted in an intervening pupal stage, lnsects of the first class are said to have ineomplete metamorphosis ”

“ The larva strength ens this capping by a loose webwork of silk within, extending down the side but slightly and attached at its edges to the last skin cast by the molting larva. This skin, extremely delicate and pressed closely against the inside of the cell, forms the lining of its sides and bottom. ”

“ Moreover, how can the moth tell what trees have wood suitable for the larvæ, when we ourselves must have a certain degree of education in order to know the commonest varieties? The [294] moth, with no previous education, never mistakes a plane-tree for a pear-tree, a box-tree for a lilac, an oak for an elm. Thus the eggs are always laid on the right sort of tree, never on any other. Where man might make a mistake, the insect never errs.
“The young larva comes out of the egg. What does the poor little thing know from experience of the hard trade it is to follow? ”

“ That a male moth can smell a female a block away, against the wind, when I can detect only a faint musky odour within a foot of her, I do not credit.
Primarily the business of moths is to meet, mate, and deposit eggs that will produce more moths. This is all of life with those that do not take food. That they add the completing touch and most beautiful form of life to a few exquisite May and June nights is their extra good fortune, not any part of the affair of living. With moths that feed and live after reproduction, mating and egg placing comes first. ”

“ Repeatedly, I have gone through the entire life process, from mating newly emerged moths, the egg period, caterpillar life, with its complicated moults and changes, the spinning of the cocoons, the miraculous winter sleep, to the spring appearance ”

“ The life of a winged insect, such as a butterfly, fly, or bee, may be divided into four stages: the embryo, or egg state, the larva, pupa, and imago,—the term metamorphosis being applied to the changes after birth, or post-embryonic stages of life. The transformations of the more specialized orders of insects involve wonderful changes of form, which are only paralleled in other types of animals by the metamorphoses of the echinoderms, of certain worms, and of the Crustacea, as well as by those of the frog. ”

“ With a soft flick-flack the great Moths fly around the bell-jar, alight, set off again, come back, fly up to the ceiling and down. They rush at the candle, putting it out with a stroke of their wings; they descend on our shoulders, clinging to our clothes, grazing our faces. ”

“ In the former of the ways mentioned, the generation of insects is effected where by metamorphosis a worm is born from an egg; or out of a putrescent material, the drying of a moist substance or the moistening of a dry one, rudiments are created, from which, as from a caterpillar grown to its full size, or from an aurelia, springs a butterfly or fly already of a{335} proper size, which never attains to any larger growth after it is first born; this is called metamorphosis. But the more perfect animals with red blood are made by epigenesis, or the superaddition of parts. ”

“ MOULD. (1) (O. Eng. molde, from a Teutonic root meaning to grind, reduce to powder, cf. “meal”) , loose fine earth, rich in organic matter, on the surface of cultivated ground, especially the made garden soil suitable for the growth of plants. In the sense of a furry growth, consisting of minute fungi found on animal or vegetable substances exposed to damp, the word may be either an extension of “mould,” earth, or an adaptation of an early “moul,” with an additional d due to “mould.” ”

“ The rule differs with feeding moths only in that after mating and egg placing they take food and live several months, often until quite heavy frosts have fallen.
One can admire to fullest extent the complicated organism, wondrous colouring, and miraculous life processes in the evolution of a moth, but that is all. Their faces express nothing; their attitudes tell no story. ”

“ Here is a larva of a moth before us whose head is a delicate orange colour, whose belly and feet a pale pure green, whose sides are of primrose tint, variegated with slashes of green, and along the back there runs a beautiful band of white, the intensity of which is most agreeably relieved by a vein of lovely pink, which divides it in the middle. ”

“ Moles are among the most prolific of mammals; and, in fact, were it not so, their race would have been long ago exterminated. We may, perhaps, venture to say, that by multiplying so prodigiously, they wish to do us a service in spite of ourselves. How tender is the solicitude of nature for the ungrateful human species!
To see the marvellous qualities ascribed to the mole by the ancients, one would suppose that they had made him the object of their special study. ”

“ The female’s feelers are thread-like.
In the Vapourer Moth (Fig. 228) , whose “looping” flight may often be observed even in the streets of towns during the day, the two [Pg 370] sexes are remarkably different from each other. The male (C) alone can fly; the female (D) is wingless, and is confined for the whole of her short adult life to the place where she emerged from the cocoon. Here she lays her eggs and then dies. Neither she nor her mate is capable of feeding.
Fig. 228.—Stages of Vapourer Moth. A, Larva (male) ; B, male pupa; C, male moth; D, female moth. ”

“ Outstanding features in a life-cycle involving metamorphosis are that growth takes place only in the larval state, and that the insect parades through life in different guises—​egg, larva, pupa, and adult—​each with its own peculiarity of habit and form, although the adult and pupa resemble one another much more than do the adult and larva ”

“ We have the choice of pursuing our entomological prey in each of its stages of growth—of eggs, caterpillar, chrysalis, or moth. If we gather them in either of the first three states, we have to nurse them until they are brought to the last, and, since in this way we can always obtain bright examples, it is much preferred by moth-fanciers. ”

“ On a hot summer’s day you may often see this beautiful moth hovering in front of geraniums and other flowers in the garden, with its long trunk plunged deeply down into the blossoms in order to suck up their sweet juices. And if you stand a few feet away and listen carefully, you will hear a low humming noise, which is caused by the rapid movements of the wings. ”

“ Suppose you have in your possession a female of this type of moth—naturalists have often made the experiment—then the male moths fly in the night to this [Pg 68] female, they even make a flight of several hours’ duration! Think of it! For many miles around all the males are conscious of the whereabouts of the only female moth in the district. People have tried to explain that, but it is not easy. Moths must have a sense of smell, or something like it, which allows them to pick up and follow an almost imperceptible scent, like a good hound. ”

“ The moth has no jaws, like bees and wasps, so that it cannot pull off these hairs as the bee would; but, as I told you, it performs the work with its tweezers, which are placed in its tail, and are like the points of a pair of sugar-tongs. The insects, too, will use them very rapidly, and pull off a little of the down, spread the egg upon it, and then cover it with more down, and smooth it very neatly. ”

“ In this stage the eggs are produced. When there is very little resemblance between the larva and the imago, and no pupal stage, the metamorphosis, or change, is said to be complete. When, as with the grasshopper, no very marked change takes place between the larva and the imago, there being no pupal stage, the metamorphosis is said to be incomplete. By studying the illustrations and specimens, and by thinking of your past observations of insects, determine which of the insects in the following list have a complete metamorphosis: beetle, house fly, grasshopper, butterfly, cricket, wasp. ”

“ We destroy the mole, yet not, if we are honest, because it devours the worm, but because it throws up unsightly and awkward mounds, obstacles to tillage, or, in many instances, because it has a pelt which has commercial value. ”

“ When the insect is prepared to make its escape and be changed to its perfect state, it discharges from its mouth a large quantity of liquid, with which the upper end of the case is so perfectly softened as to enable the moth to work its way out in a very short space of time ”

“ By triturating this earth, by subjecting its minerals to the action of the humus acids, and by periodically exposing the mold to the air, they prepare the ground in an excellent manner for the growth of fibrous-rooted plants and for seedlings. The bones of dead animals, the harder parts of insects, the shells of land-mollusks, leaves, twigs, etc., are before long all buried beneath the accumulated castings of worms, and are thus brought in a more or less decayed state within reach of the roots of plants. ”