CHAPTER XIV 



THE GREAT PEACOCK, OR EMPEROR MOTH 



It was a memorable night ! I will name it the Night 

 of the Great Peacock. Who does not know this superb 

 moth, the largest of all our European butterflies,^with its 

 livery of chestnut velvet and its collar of white fur ? 

 The greys and browns of the wings are crossed by a 

 paler zig-zag, and bordered with smoky white ; and in 

 the centre of each wing is a round spot, a great eye with 

 a black pupil and variegated iris, resolving into concentric 

 arcs of black, white, chestnut, and purplish red. 



Not less remarkable is the caterpillar. Its colour is a 

 vague yellow. On the summit of thinly sown tubercles 

 crowned with a palisade of black hairs are set pearls of a 

 turquoise-blue. The burly brown cocoon, which is 

 notable for its curious tunnel of exit, like an eel-pot, is 

 always found at the base of an old almond-tree, adhering 

 to the bark. The foliage of the same tree nourishes 

 the caterpillar. 



On the morning of the 6th of May a female emerged 



from her cocoon in my presence on my laboratory table. 



I cloistered her immediately, all damp with the moisture 



of metamorphosis, in a cover of wire gauze. I had no 



particular intentions regarding her ; I imprisoned her 



* The word " butterfly " is here used, as is the French papillon, as 

 a general term for all Lepidoptera ; the insect in question is 

 of course a moth. 



179 



