MOTHS OF THE LIMBERLOST 



to be of the kind that march independently from their 

 shells without stopping to feed on them. Of every food 

 offered, the youngsters seemed to prefer lilac leaves. I 

 remembered that they had passed the winter wrapped 

 in these, dangling from their twigs, and that the under- 

 wings of the male and much of the female bore a flushing 

 of colour that was lilac, for what else is red wine veiled 

 with white? So I promptly christened them, "The Pride 

 of the Lilacs." They were said to eat ash, apple, pear, 

 willow, plum, cherry, poplar and many other leaves, 

 but mine liked lilac, and there was a supply in reach of 

 the door, so they undoubtedly were lilac caterpillars, for 

 they had nothing else to eat. 



The little fellows were pronouncedly yellow. The 

 black head with a gray stripe joined the thorax with a 

 yellow band. The body was yellow with black rings, 

 the anal parts black, the legs pale grayish yellow. They 

 made their first moult on the tenth day and when ready 

 to eat again they were stronger yellow^ than before, wath 

 many touches of black. They moulted four times, each 

 producing slight changes' until the third when the body 

 took on a greenish tinge, delicate and frosty in appearance. 

 The heads were yellow with touches of black, and the 

 anal shield even stronger yellow, with black. At the 

 last moult there came a touch of red on the thorax, and 

 of deep blue on the latter part of the body. 



In spinning they gummed over the upper surface of a 



330 



