MOTHS OF THE LIMBERLOST 



line can be traced through the shell on which they make 

 their first meal when they emerge. Female Cecropias 

 average about three hundred and fifty eggs each, that 

 they sometimes place singly, and again string in rows, or 

 in captivity pile in heaps. In freedom they deposit the 

 eggs mostly on leaves, sometimes the under, sometimes 

 the upper, sides or dot them on bark, boards or walls. 

 The percentage of loss of eggs and the young is large, for 

 they are nowhere numerous enough to become a pest, 

 as they certainly would if three hundred caterpillars 

 survived to each female moth. The young feed on apple, 

 willow, maple, box-elder, or wild cherry leaves, and grow 

 through a series of feeding periods and moults, during 

 which they rest for a few days, cast the skin and intestinal 

 lining and then feed for another period. 



After the females have fijiished depositing their eggs, 

 they cling to branches, vines or walls a few days, fly 

 aimlessly at night and then pas? out without ever having 

 taken food. 



I have painted this moth from a newly emerged female, 

 when all colouring was much stronger than after a few 

 days of life. I have been careful to place the most 

 minute line and trace the finest colour shading from 

 lavender and rose madder at the apex of the wing, to 

 terra cotta, black and white at the base. How perfectly 

 the engravers can reproduce all these complicated mark- 

 ings remains to be seen. 



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