I can well believe that the antennae are most important to a moth, for a broken one means a spoiled study for me.  It starts the moth tremulously shivering, aimlessly beating, crazy, in fact, and there is no hope of it posing for a picture.  Doctor Clemens records that Cecropia could neither, walk nor fly, but wheeled in a senseless, manner when deprived of its antennae.  This makes me sure that they are the seat of highest sensibility, for I have known in one or two cases of chloroformed moths reviving and without struggle or apparent discomfort, depositing eggs in a circle around them, while impaled to a setting board with a pin thrust through the thorax where it of necessity must have passed through or very close the nervous cord and heart.

The moth is covered completely with silken down like tiny scales, coloured and marked according to species, and so lightly attached that it adheres to the cocoon on emergence and clings to the fingers at the lightest touch.  From the examination of specimens I have taken that had disfigured themselves, it appears that a moth rubbed bare of down would seem as if covered with thinly cut, highly polished horn, fastened together in divisions.  This is called `chitine’ by scientists.

The thorax bears four wings, and six legs, each having five joints and ending in tiny claws.  The wings are many-veined membranous sacs, covered with scales that are coloured according to species and arranged to form characteristic family markings.  They are a framework usually of twelve hollow tubes or veins that are so connected with the respiratory organs as to be pneumatic.  These tubes support double membranes covered above and below with down.  At the bases of the wings lie their nerves.  The fore-wings each have a heavy rib running from the base and gradually decreasing to the tip.  This is called the costa.  Its purpose is to bear the brunt of air-pressure in flight.  On account of being compelled to fly so much more than the females, the back wings of the males of many species have developed a secondary rib that fits under and supports the front, also causing both to work together with the same impulse to flight.  A stiff bunch of bristles serves the same purpose in most females, while some have a lobe extending from the fore-wing.  As long as the costa remains unbroken to preserve balance, a moth that has become entangled in bushes or suffered rough treatment from birds can fly with badly damaged wing surfaces.

In some species, notably the Attacine group and all non-feeding, night-flying moths, the legs are short, closely covered with long down of the most delicate colours of the moth, and sometimes decorated with different shades.  Luna has beautiful lavender legs, Imperialis yellow, and Regalis red-brown.  The day-flying, feeding group have longer, slenderer legs, covered with shorter down, and carry more elaborate markings.  This provision is to enable them to cling firmly to flower or twig while feeding, to help them to lift the body higher, and walk dextrously in searching for food.  It is also noticeable that these moths have, for their size, comparatively much longer, slenderer wings than the non-feeders, and they can turn them back and fold them together in the fly position, thus enabling them to force their way into nectar-bearing flowers of trumpet shape.