Insect Study. 



733 



but make the cocoon within the leaf and drop to the ground when the 

 leaf falls. 



THE CYNTHIA (Philosantia cyntJiia) 



This beautiful moth is an Asiastic species ; it is very large and olive 

 green in color with lavender tints and white markings; there are white 

 tufts of hairs on the abdomen. It builds its cocoon like the promethea 

 fastening the petiole to the twig. It lives upon the ailanthus tree, and is 

 found in our State only in the re- 

 gion about New York City, where 

 the ailanthus has been introduced 

 as a shade tree. 



THE POLYPHEMUS (Tclca 



.polyphemus) 



This large, yellowish-brown 

 moth is the one of all our species 

 of American silk-worms which 

 would be used for the production 

 of silk if we were deprived of the 

 product of the Chinese species. Its 

 silk is strong and smooth, very 

 lustrous, and extremely durable. Each cocoon gives about eight hundred 

 feet of unbroken silk. 



Food plants. — Oak, elm, maple, chestnut, walnut, beech, birch, apple, 

 pear, wild cherry and many others. 



Polyphemus eggs, enlarged. 



Polyphemus moth. 



The eggs. — These are Hat and round like a lozenge ; the top and bot- 

 tom are white and the sides brownish. They are laid in clusters, usually 



