Silk-Worms and Giant Night-Butterflies 79 



wild cherry, maple, willow and plum trees and cur- 

 rant and harberry bushes. The mother Cecropia 

 will lay between three and four hundred eggs in a 

 week's time. She lays her eggs on leaves, those 

 watched in confinement being said to have deposited 

 their eggs upon the upper side of the leaves. 



The eggs are of a pinkish-white in color, more 

 or less daubed with the reddish-brown glue with 

 which the mother moth sticks the eggs to the leaves. 

 It takes a little over two weeks for the eggs to 

 hatch. 



The young caterpillar is of a decidedly yellow 

 color and has a row of warts on its back looking 

 like minute specimens of the Southwestern cactus 

 plants set in a garden row. The baby is full grown 

 by the first of September and will then measure 

 three or more inches in length; it is entirely of a 

 light-green color and it has two balloon-like red 

 warts, studded with a dozen short black bristles, 

 located on the second ring ; the two warts on the top 

 of the third ring are a little larger but otherwise 

 the same as the ones described. Then come the 

 yellow warts, egg-shaped and bristled. On the 

 eleventh ring there is one big wart and on each side 

 of the body there are two rows of light-blue warts. 



