MOTHS OF THE LIMBERLOST 



spoiled, and my skirts bedraggled, but I captured the 

 moth and saw no indication of snakes. Soon after she 

 was placed in a big pasteboard box and began dotting 

 eggs in straight lines over the interior. They were white 

 but changed colour as the caterpillars approached time to 

 hatch. The little yellow-green creatures, nearly a quar- 

 ter of an inch long, with a black line across the head, 

 emerged in about sixteen days, and fed with most satis- 

 faction on oak, but they would take hickory, walnut or 

 willow leaves also. When the weather is cold the young 

 develop slower and I have had the egg period stretched 

 to three weeks at times. Every few days the young 

 caterpillars cast their skins and emerged in brighter col- 

 our and larger in size. It is usually supposed they mature 

 in four moults, and many of them do, but some cast a fifth 

 skin before transforming. When between seven and 

 eight weeks of age, they were three inches long, and 

 of strong blue-green colour. Most of them had tuber- 

 cles of yellow, tipped with blue, and some had 

 red. 



They spun a leaf -cover cocoon, much the size and shape 

 of that of Polyphemus, but whiter, very thin, with no 

 inner case, and against some solid surface whenever pos- 

 sible. Fearing I might not handle them rightly, and 

 lose some when ready to spin, I put half on our walnut 

 tree so they could weave their cocoons according to char- 

 acteristics. 



182 



