CALLOSAMIA 



95 



Tlie naturalist, however, is not to be thus deceived, as a boy 

 and myself collected from three to four hundred specimens 

 during short winter rambles in the neighbourhood. 



" The perfect insects appear about the end of May and be- 

 ginning of June, at which time the leaves of the Sassafras, Spice- 

 wood, and Swamp Button-wood {Cephalajithus occidenialis) 

 have attained a sufficient size to afford a plentiful supi)ly of 

 food to the caterpillar; the parent insect most commonly 

 selecting those trees for the sustenance of her future progeny, 

 and depositing her eggs on or near the leaves which have been 

 chosen for that purpose. 



"The caterpillar casts its skin three or four times, increasing 

 in bulk and brilliancy of colour with each change, and finally 

 attains the size represented in our figure; it then loses the 

 voracious appetite which has hitherto been its predominant 

 character, and begins its preparations for the great trans- 

 formation it has to undergo, by selecting a perfect leaf, the 

 upper surface of which it covers with a fine, light, yellowish- 

 brown silk, extending this coating, with great skill and fore- 

 sight, over the foot-stalk of the leaf, and attaching it firmly to 

 the branch, so as to secure the leaf from being separated by 

 any accident. This preliminary having been accomplished, 

 the caterpillar next draws the edges of the leaf together; thus 

 forming a perfect external covering or mantle, in which it spins 

 a fine, strong, durable cocoon of fine silk. In this habitation 

 our little architect passes the winter, secure from birds and 

 other enemies (see plate cxvii., fig. 4). As soon as the cocoon 

 has been completed the caterpillar again sheds its skin, and is 

 transformed into a pupa or nymph (plate cxxii., fig. 5). At 

 first, the leaf enveloping the cocoon remains green, but soon 

 changes to a red or brown colour, when it becomes brittle, and 

 is gradually carried away by the winds and storms of the 

 winter, until finally nothing remains except the cocoon itself, 



