White Moth Research Articles

Simile

Simile David Baker (bio) 1 Orange-and-midnight the moth on the fringe tree— first it nags a bloom; sips and chews; then shakes the big flower. Then its wings slow. Grows satiate, as in sex. Then still, as the good sleep after. Each bloom a white torch more than a tree’s flower. Each is one of ten or twelve, conic, one of many made of many green-white or white petals held out, as by a hand, from the reach of the limb. A field this morning was full of white moths. More in the side yard, in the bluebottle, lifting—fog off the dew, white wings like paper over flames and floating awry or pieces of petal torn off. Weeks now my words on paper have burned. Burned and flown, like a soul on fire, with nothing to show but ash, and the ash flies too. 2 Today, in the news—so many martyrs— an “unnamed suicide bomber” took herself into the arms of flame, and five others, “by her own hand.” Whitman means the beauty of the mind is terror. Do you think I could walk pleasantly andwell-suited toward annihilation? But there is no likeness beyond her body in flames, for its moment, no matter its moment. Yet the fringe bloom burns. Yet the moth shakes and chews, as in sex. When the young maple grows covered with seeds, they are a thousand [End Page 24] green wings, like chain upon chain of keys, each with its tiny spark trying the black lock. A tumbler turns and clicks. The world once more fills with fire, and the body, like ash, is ash. [End Page 25] David Baker David Baker’s latest book of poems is Never-Ending Birds (W. W. Norton, 2009), which was a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Award. Talk Poetry, his collection of interviews with contemporary poets, will appear in 2012 from the University of Arkansas Press. Other new poems are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Northwest Review, Southern Review, and elsewhere. Copyright © 2011 Middlebury College Publications

Occurrence and habitat of the endangered white flower moth, Schinia bimatris (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), in Manitoba

AbstractThe only known Canadian population of the white flower moth, Schinia bimatris Harvey, a federally listed endangered species, was rediscovered in 2003 in the dune area of Spruce Woods Provincial Park and Canadian Forces Base Shilo in Manitoba. Little is known about the biology or habitat requirements of this moth in North America. The dune area in Manitoba was surveyed for adult and immature stages of the species during July 2007 using light traps and daytime visual searches. A detailed vegetation survey was also completed in areas where moths were active. Whereas individuals caught in light traps were predominantly males, both females and males were observed to be very active during daylight hours. This is the first record of diurnal activity of the white flower moth in Canada. Adults were observed flying above dune crests and also resting on vegetation between open dunes. Although the current population appears robust, given the number of adults observed, a previous population approximation of up to 5000 individuals may be an overestimate because sand-dune habitat is limited. We were unable to locate immature stages or determine which host plant(s) were utilized by larvae.

Vision complements echolocation in an aerial-hawking bat.

The northern bat Eptesicus nilssonii normally hunts flying insects in the air using frequency-modulated echolocation calls. It is also known to detect and catch visually conspicuous prey (white moths) hovering low among grass stalks. To overcome the problem with acoustic clutter from the grass, which interferes with target echo detection, the bats make use of visual cues in addition to those of echolocation. We therefore investigated the minimum size of prey that the bats could distinguish by using vision, by presenting the bats with different sized dead and spread moths. We found that vision increased the chance of detection only when the moths had a wingspan of at least 5 cm. Smaller targets were detected using echolocation alone. The mean detection range was 3.5 m, suggesting that the bats need a visual acuity of 49' of arc to detect the prey. This is consistent with results of optomotor response tests and counts of retinal ganglion cells in closely related species. Our results suggest that the visual acuity of Eptesicus bats may not be adequate for prey detection under normal conditions, but that the bats can use vision when the prey is unusually large and conspicuous. The northern bats display a flexibility in prey detection techniques not previously recognised among aerial-hawking bats and they are able to use their full visual capacity in the field.

Effects of two kinds of transgenic poplar on protective enzymes system in the midgut of larvae of American white moth

The leaves of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) transgenic poplar (Populus nigra L.) and CpTI (Cowpea trypsin inhibitor) transgenic poplar ((P. tomentosa×P. bolleana)×P. Tomentosa) were taken to feed the 4th-5th-instar larvae of American white moth (Hyphantria cunea (Drury)) for determination of the activities of the protective enzyme system inside larvae's body. The physiological and biochemical effects of the transgenic poplars on the larvae were studied. The results showed that the two kinds of transgenic poplars had similar effects on the protective enzyme system in the midgut of larvae. The activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase in midgut of the larvae increased gradually, reached the highest value at a certain time, and then decreased suddenly. For the larvae that were fed with the leaves of Bt transgenic poplar, the peak value of superoxide dismutase and catalase presented at the time of 24-h feeding, while the peak of peroxidase took place at the time of 12-h feeding. The activities of these protective enzymes for the larvae that were fed with leaves of CpTI transgenic poplar peaked 12 h later than that of those fed with leaves of Bt transgenic poplar. The comparison of activities of the protective enzymes was also carried out between the larvae with different levels of intoxication. It was found that the activities of protective enzyme of the seriously intoxicant larvae were higher than that of the lightly intoxicant larvae. This difference was more obvious in the group treated with CpTI transgenic poplar.

Journeys to Six Lands

1 Out of droning Bayonne at five, sun silhouetting a Buddha on the city's one shrine. We had fashioned a mast for our hull from a stout pine that we felled and lopped in the dark, amid much blasphemy. By lantern light we saw what some nimble climber had long ago carved in its fork, before he except after she-weird words leading to argument over what they might portend. Once the mast was stepped and braced with stays, we raised our sails with halyards we had braided out of rawhide. There is a tear in the leech of our mainsail. We glided down the river between zones of industrial waste. Only a few indifferent gulls watched us leave. It is after all a poor, deserted place. Tiers of mussels ringed the pilings of abandoned wharves in the lowering tide. There is an inexplicable tear in the leech of the mainsail. We were bound for home-a home that we had forgotten or never seen. 2 Standing away north from the coast, the wind sitting east-northeast, a harsh quarter-we could do nothing but drive, scudding away as we bore against it, mast sloping, bow dipping. We had no true officers but encouraged each other to stand to the tackle, stretch on the oars, contract the luffing sails, everything a struggle, with the sea swirling and hawling inboard, in a shrilling of stays and halyards. We forgot the new old world we longed for. We had taken a priest named Dory on board; he now passed among us, intoning the opening words of the fifty-first psalm and raising crossed sticks over each of us as he did so in a kind of infernal blessing. Such a handsome man, young, light-hearted, not a drowning mark on him, master of men and of women, too! He was to enrapture all our loveliest in turn. Even now, in those endragoned seas, he took Dominique into the dark below the leaking cabin decking. At one moment the waves rose from such a depth I saw the floor of the sea: lobsters five feet long and scurrying crabs with glowing eyes. Later, the sky seemed boundless, full of fierce stars. 3 We drifted into a stinking fog, thick with what felt like soot. The killersqualls had passed on-one man and a boy washed overboard. The mainsail was tattered; half the snap hooks on the jib would not close; all our circuits were broken. The sails for now were of no use anyway: not a breath of wind. We worked hard at our oars though with heavy hearts, like men going to execution. (It seems our sweat made the ladies hot-it was Gloria's impatient turn with Dory today.) The water felt thick with ooze, with something like clay. We dreaded running aground in the dark. Next to the steersman, whose face gleamed white by his lamp, a woman sat holding a frond wetted with vinegar, to slap him in he nodded off. I looked up once and there stood the cook in his greasy girdle, not a sign of care on his filthy-bearded face as he shucked a bucket of mussels, tossing shells over our heads into the sad water. The place and time of our embarcation were already beyond any wish to remember them. 4 Was there a droning in the fog? The smell had gotten worse. Afraid that the splashed water was toxic, some rowers wore soul-and-body lashings in spite of the heat. We came among quiet, turgid eddies and a sudden voluminous cloud of night-flying white moths: land nearby? In that case someone said, it must be the land beyond the sun. A pier emerged from the darkness, protruding from an acre of barren ground. At its tip three figures were imploring to be taken on board. Dory and Faith, his day's companion, helped each over the gunwale with a finger entwined in his hair. As we moved off, rowing still (first our propellors had fouled, now the throttle cable stuck), we felt a solid thing hindering our progress. Someone recognized the body of our lost boy. When we leaned over to recover him, the cook, nibbling a dish of goose lungs as he spoke, said flatly that he would not have him aboard. He picked up an abandoned oar and pushed him under, easy enough with his garments so heavy with the drink. …

202 Production of Cut Flowers from Field-grown Hydrangeas

Cut flowers from field-grown hydrangeas are a potential alternative source of income for Kentucky growers. Early production is important to receive immediate returns of ones investment. In Spring 1998, a hydrangea cultivar trial was established at the Univ. of Kentucky Research and Education Center, Princeton. The planting consisted of 12 plants each of nine cultivars (`Annabelle', `Boskoop', `Pink Diamond', `Unique', `Kyushu', `Tardiva', `Pee Wee', `Alice', and `White Moth') allocated to 12 rows (blocks) in a randomized block design. Date of first bloom, number of inflorescence at first bloom, number of stems and their length were recorded. The cultivars `Unique', `Pink Diamond', and `Tardiva' yielded significantly more flowers with commercially desirable stem lengths (>45 cm) than did `Annabelle' and `Boskoop'. `Alice' and `White Moth' did not bloom.

White Moths

White Moths

New color TV cameras for ultraviolet, near infrared and visible light

Two kinds of TV cameras have been developed that are capable of showing the wavelengths of ultraviolet, infrared, and visible light by means of a false color method. One is sensitive to wavelengths from 250 to 650 nm (ultraviolet to yellow). It can simulate the color vision of the honey bee and other insects, reproducing the nectar guide of a flower or displaying the sex of a cabbage white moth, which is indistinguishable to the naked eye. The other is sensitive to a wider wavelength of 250 to 1,050 nm (ultraviolet to near infrared). According to the filter selected, it obtains not only visual images of invisible light information but also pictures same as those from an ordinary color camera. These TV cameras can be applied in many fields, including science, art, medicine, and industry.

The Children Who Haven't Stopped Moving, and: Releasing the Herd, and: That Not So Certain Feeling, and: News from the North, and: Diving the Shoals, and: Tales of a Four-Legged Land

THE TOM McAFEE discovery feature Carol Potter Carol Potter is our second Tom McAfee Discovery Feature Poet, a continuing series which features the work of an outstanding young poet who has not yet published a book. Carol has recently received a Massachusetts Foundation for the Arts grant, and has poems forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Massachusetts Review, and New Letters. She is currently teaching part time at Holyoke Community College. The Tom McAfee Discovery Feature is funded by the family and friends of Tom McAfee. THE CHILDREN WHO HAVEN'T STOPPED MOVING / Carol Potter We rode the train through the north woods, five children nodding at the familiar names: North Creek, Speculator. Somebody behind us kept whispering: "Paradise." There was an old woman in his arms. He shifted his feet on the bare wood floor, held her waist as if she were a baby with wings threatening to fill the train with her gaggle. The old man leaned over the seat: "She drinks too much." We didn't say anything. "Who the hell told you kids it would be any different?" We pretended to be asleep. I lay back, dreamed of white moths scraping their wings against the windows. We were the lights about to go out. I saw the dust from their backs fill the glass; I always thought it was the dust that made them fly. I woke in a car of frostglazed windows. We began scratching our names in the rime. Behind us, he kept whispering: "If you don't like it, just get up and move." There were no other seats. We could see the woods animals up in the tops of trees, waving at us, like grandmothers, their white handkerchiefs flagging the breeze. The Missouri Review · 99 RELEASING THE HERD / Carol Potter Pressed like moths against the barn windows, we watched water rise around us. Twenty hours of rain, lights from the barn splayed like a broad hand across our new river towards home, where a woman sat at the white window playing piano. "Our mother of the river-boat," we said. We were stuck, and there was nothing we could do but tend the herd, and talk. Our cows in their stone berths bellowed, black and white, brindle, guernsey . . . breath billowed the barn. We fed out hay, warmed our hands on the cows' udders, drank milk straight from the pails. For some time, all we could hear was rain falling on the roof, 200 cleft hooves shifting, 50 blonde tongues buried deep in last summer's second cutting. Outside, we could see the river rising . . . Our world now seamless ... no hills, no rocks, no trees. The river was surveying our land, measuring the perimeters of house and barn. Once we saw the house go down river, our mother of the river-boat at her piano, waving. Once we saw the John Deere tractor float by the barn, its 6 foot rubber wheels revolving on themselves, our father at the helm doing what he could to conduct that tide. Once our barn shifted on its moorings. We fell silent. We knew it was time to release the herd, kiss each one on the brow. Two by two our cows migrated from the barn, tails arched over their backs. Hoping there might be some dry bridge between where we were, and where we needed to be, we walked from the barn that night into neck-deep water. The dappled river scrubbed our faces. Everything depended on the way the barn lights draped themselves across the water, how each of us 100 · The Missouri Review rode those broad yellow hands down river. We did what we could. It was a baptism. It was a drowning. It was the only way home. Carol Potter The Missouri Review · 101 THAT NOT SO CERTAIN FEELING / Carol Potter There was no difference between the outside and the inside. They asked her how it felt. She said it felt like nothing. She couldn't explain. On one street, she found a silent band standing, marchers in mid-motion, their conductor gone off on his horse, his baton rising and falling. People were lined up alongside the street, amazed at how whole segments...

Heaped Words in the Void: Some Recent Dickinson Criticism

Sharon Cameron. Lyric Time: Dickinson and the Limits of Genre. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979.280 + x pp. Karl Keller. The Only Kangaroo Among the Beauty : Emily Dickinson and America. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979. 340 + xiv pp. Rebecca Patterson. Emily Dickinson's Imagery. Ed. with intro. by Margaret H. Freeman. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1979. 238 + xvii pp. David Porter. Dickinson : The Modem Idiom. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981. 316 + xii pp. In 1970 Willis T. Buckingham published a thorough and invaluable historical survey of the literary commentary on Emily Dickinson as the introduction to his Emily Dickinson : An Annotated Bibliography. He identified therein three major, and quite conventional, strains in that commentary: biography, scholarship and criticism. He identified himself with the academic predilection of our own day by deprecating biographical interests and applauding the efforts of scholars and critics. Now, there is of course, in some measure, good reason for this reaction. Buckingham quite correctly pointed out that in the first two historical eras of Dickinson commentary, "The Period of Todd and Higginson" (1890-1913), and "The Period of Bianchi" (1913-1930), biographical interests dominated both scholarship and criticism, producing on the one hand corrupt editions of Dickinson's writings, and on the other criticism "by epithet," evoking the legend of "the Nun of Amherst," and "calling her anything from the Gnome of Amherst to the American Sappho." In the third era, according to Buckingham, the era he entitled "The Johnson era" (1930-1968), biographical concerns receded from dominance and editorial and critical undertakings proved their superior worth. He was especially satisfied that the emphasis had switched from the life of the poet to her life as artist. Nonetheless, he continued to be worried by the persistent "primordial desire to peep behind Miss Dickinson's window shades," though he expressed the hope, almost the confidence, that "we are armed with Johnson's texts, Leyda's log, Rosenbaum's concordance, and a history of some excellent criticism among much that is flawed and irrelevant. We have, in short, the tools to seek the poet, Dickinson, and the wisdom to let the White Moth of Amherst fall where she may" (p. xxi).

Phenology of White Fir and Douglas-fir Tussock Moth 12 Egg Hatch and Larval Development in California

The phenology of bud burst and shoot elongation of the host tree and egg hatch and larval development were studied on 3 areas in a 1972 infestation. Bud burst and egg hatch were found to be closely related to accumulated degree-days, and peak egg hatch occurred when 77–97% of the buds had burst. Larval development then closely followed shoot elongation. This synchrony of host and insect phenology provides an easily observed field event for monitoring Douglas-fir tussock moth development.

RHACONOTUS SCIRPOPHAGAE, Wik., A PARASITE OF THE SUGARCANE WHITE MOTH BORER (Scirpophaga).

As a result of the intensive study of the natural enemies I the sugarcane white moth borer (Scirpophaga) in Coimbatore, seven larval arasites have been collected. A paper on one of these-Elasmus zehntneri, err., was published in the Madras Agricultural Journal, Vol. XXV. pp. 73-279. Rhaconotus scirpophagae, Wlk, another parasite, is the subject matter of the present paper. Interesting information on the habits and life istory of the parasite, egglaying capacity, longevity, etc., is given and the latus of the parasite discussed.

On the Life History and the Poison Apparatus of the White Flannel Moth, Lagoa Crispata Packard.

The white flannel moth, according to Holland, ranges from Massachusetts southward along the coast. According to Riley and Johannsen, the white flannel moth occurs in the Atlantic and Southern United States. The caterpillar, Holland says, feeds on blackberry. As early as 1869 the life history of this species was observed by J. A. Lintner. In the published account there are very complete descriptions of the various stages, of the habits of the larvae, as well as of the manner of spinning the cocoon. The number of larval instars observed were six. The host plants of the larvae are given as various species of Quercus, Vaccinium, Pteris aquilina, and other plants. According to Smith, quoted by Felt, the caterpillar,“lives on most of the orchard trees and small fruits as well as many other trees and shrubs.” Felt lists, in addition to the host plants named above, elm, apple, and raspberry.

PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE WORD BUTTERFLY

The transformation of a grovelling worm to the glory that attaches to the winged aspirant of the heavens, has won for this insect from remote antiquity the appellation of Spirit or Soul, as typical of the resurrected human body. There is, I think, good reason to believe that the root meaning of the word Butterfly dates back to early Egyptian history, and as a hieroglyphic it is synonymous as representing the qualities of completeness and perfection which characterize the soul. I have supposed that it might serve the interest of this journal to record such historical gleanings bearing upon this subject as have come within my reach. It is said that in Yorkshire in England, the country folk call the night-flying white moths, Souls. This restricted application of the term very forcibly expresses what had been traditionally received by these people, and which they unwittingly have applied to certain white winged species. The English word Moth is said to be the Egyptian MUT or MAT. MAT is to pass; MUT to die; MATT, unfold, unwind, open, as the chrysalis entered the winged state and passed. The winged thing was a symbol of the Soul; it appears in the hieroglyphics as the Moth or Butterfly.

ENTOMOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS

The caterpillars known under the common name of “woolly bears” belong to the family of Arctians, and most of the species in the moth state are very pretty objects. The commonest of all the species is Spilosoma virginica, a pure white moth which appears on the wing in May, when it deposits its clusters of round yellow eggs on the under side of the leaves of many plants.