MOTHS OF THE LIMBERLOST 



that just had emerged from the cocoon, and as yet was 

 resting with wings untried. It differed so widely from 

 my moth of a few days before, I knew it must be a 

 male. 



This was only three fourths as large as mine, but in- 

 finitely surpassed it in beauty. Its front wings were 

 orange-yellow, flushed with red-purple at the base, and 

 had a small irregular brown spot near the costa. Con- 

 trary to all precedent, the under side of these wings were 

 the most beautiful, and bore the decorations, that in all 

 previous experience with moths, had been on the upper 

 surface, faintly showing on the under. For instance, 

 this irregular brown marking on the upper side proved 

 to be a good-sized black spot with a white dot in the 

 middle on the under; and there was a curved line of 

 red-purple from the apex of the wing sloping to the lower 

 edge, nearly half an inch from the margin. The space 

 from this line to the base of the wing was covered with 

 red-purple down. The back wings were similar to the 

 female's, only of stronger colour, and more distinct 

 markings; the eye-spot and lining appeared as if they 

 had been tinted with strong fresh paint, while the 

 edges of the wings lying beside the abdomen had the 

 long, silken hairs of a pure, beautiful red their entire 

 length. 



A few rods away men were plowing in the adjoining 

 corn field, and I remembered that the caterpillar of this 



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