MOTHS OF THE LIMBERLOST 



antennse set it crazy, and it shook and trembled contin- 

 ually, going out in a short time without depositing any 

 eggs. One thing I did get was complete identification, and 

 another, to attribute the experience to Mrs. Comstock in 

 "A Girl of the Limberlost," when I wished to make her 

 do something particularly disagreeable. In learning a 

 moth I study its eggs, caterpillars, and cocoons, so that 

 fall Raymond and I began searching for Polyphemus. I 

 found our first cocoon hanging by a few spun threads of 

 silk, from a willow twig overhanging a stream in the 

 Limberlost, 



A queer little cocoon it was. The body was tan col- 

 our, and thickly covered with a white sprinkling like 

 lime. A small thorn tree close the cabin yielded Ray- 

 mond two more; but these were darker in colour, and 

 each was spun inside three thorn leaves so firmly that it 

 appeared triangular in shape. The winds had blown the 

 cocoons against the limbs and worn away the projecting 

 edges of the leaves, but the mid ribs and veins showed 

 plainly. In all we had half a dozen of these cocoons 

 gathered from different parts of the swamp, and we found 

 them dangling from a twig of willow or hawthorn, by a 

 small piece of spinning. During the winter these oc- 

 cupied the place of state in the conservatory, and were 

 watched every day. They were kept in the coolest spot, 

 but where the sun reached them at times. Always in 

 watering the flowers, the hose was turned on them, be- 



249 



