III. THE OPENING OF A COCOON. {Mary Eogers Ifiller.) 



MONG the coiniiioiiest treaBures brouglit into the 

 school by children in the fall or winter are the 

 cocoons of our giant silk worms. If one has a place 

 to put them wliere the air is not too warm or dry^ 

 no special care will be necessary to keep them 

 through the winter. Out-door conditions must 

 be imitated as nearly as possible. If early in the 

 fall one is fortunate enough to meet one of these 

 giants out for a walk, it is the simplest thing in 

 the world to capture him and watch him spin his marvelous winter 

 blanket. Two members of this family of giant insects are quite 

 common in this State : the largest, the Cecropia, called sometimes 

 the Emperor, and the Promethea. 



77, — Cocoon of the Cecropia moth. It sometimes hangs fiom a twig of some 



fruit tree. 



The Cecropia moth often measures five or six inches across — a 

 veritable giant. Its main color is dusty brown, with spots and bands 

 of cinnamon brown and white. On each wing is a white crescent 

 bordered with red and outlined with a black line. The body is 

 heavy and covered with thick, reddish-brown hairs crossed near the 

 end with black and wliite lines. On its small head are two large 



500 



