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Galium Sphinx — Part 2
Images coming soon.
Among the insects thousands and tens of thousands of species are nocturnal. This is true of the great majority of the moths. When the hour of dusk approaches stand by a bed of evening primroses, and, as their great yellow blossoms suddenly open, watch the hawkmoths coming as swiftly as meteors through the air, hovering for an instant over this blossom, probing into the sweet depths of another, and then dashing off again so quickly that the eye cannot follow them. My friend, Henry Pryer, had a great bed of evening primroses in his compound on the Bluff in Yokohama. Well I remember standing with him before the flowers, and, as the light began to fade upon the distant top of Fuji-no-yama, with net in hand capturing the hawkmoths, which came eagerly trooping to the spot. When it grew quite dark O-Chi-san held a Japanese lantern aloft to help us to see where to make our strokes. A dozen species became our spoil during those pleasant evenings. Ah! those nights in Japan! Can I ever forget them?
Did you ever reflect upon the fact that the wings of many moths, which lie concealed during the daytime, reveal their most glorious coloring only after dark, when they are upon the wing? Take as an illustration, the splendid moths of the great genus Catocala, the Afterwings, as we familiarly call them. The fore wings are so colored as to cause them, when they are quietly resting upon the trunks of trees in the daytime, to look like bits of moss, or discolored patches upon the bark. They furnish, in such positions, one of the most beautiful illustrations of protective mimicry which can be found in the whole realm of nature. The hind wings are completely concealed at such times. The hind wings are, however, most brilliantly colored. In some species they are banded with pink, in others with crimson; still others have markings of yellow, orange, or snowy white on a background of jet-black. One European species has bands of blue upon the wings. These colors are distinctive of the species to a greater or less extent. They are only displayed at night. The conclusion is irresistibly forced upon us that the eyes of these creatures are capable of discriminating these colors in the darkness. We cannot do it. No human eye in the blackness of the night can distinguish red from orange, or crimson from yellow. The human eye is the greatest of all anatomical marvels, and the most wonderful piece of animal mechanism in the world, but not all of power is lodged within it. There are other allied mechanisms which have the power of responding to certain forms of radiant energy to a degree which it does not possess.
Let me commend to the study of my readers this world of the dark of which I have been speaking. Some of the pleasantest excursions afield which can be made are those which the naturalist takes, when he has only moonlight or starlight to guide his steps. Always take a dark lantern with you. Without it you cannot see, and even with it you will not see much which it might be delightful to behold. But without a lantern you will not see a great deal, and you may in the thick wood get deeply mired in a boggy hole, or even break a limb. Your eyes are not made like those of the owl and the cat. Do not be afraid of the "night air." The air of the night has the same chemical composition as the air of the day. It is cooler, of course, and sometimes it has fog in it, but cool and even foggy air is not unhealthful. Scotchmen live half their lives in fog, but are healthy. The only things to be dreaded are the mosquitoes, carrying with them the germs of malaria, as we call it. These may be kept off if you only know how to anoint yourself with a properly prepared lotion.