124 GIANT SILK-WORMS. 
drawing them together and by fastening some of them very 
firmly to the outside of the cocoon. This latter is oval in 
shape, of a brownish-white color, and is completely closed, 
differing in this respect from that of the cecropia, which is 
open at oneend. Asa general rule the cocoons drop to the 
ground with the leaves in autumn and remain there. 
Late in the spring the moth appears. It is shown in 
Fig. 126, Plate XIII. Its wings expand from five to six in- 
ches, and are of a dull, ochre-yellow color, sometimes of a 
rich buff, or inclined to a pale-gray or cream color, or they 
possess a deeper and almost brown color. Towards the 
base of the wings they are crossed by an irregular pale- 
white band, margined with red; near the outer margin is a 
stripe of pale purplish-white, bordered within by one of rich 
brown. About the middle of each wing is a transparent 
eye-like spot, divided transversely by a slender line, and en- 
circled by yellow and black rings. On the hind-wings these 
spots are more eye-like in shape, and are bordered with yel- 
low, with a line of black edged with blue above and the 
whole set in a frame made of an oval spot of rich dark- 
brown, the widest portion of it being above the eye-spot, 
where it is sprinkled also with bluish specks. The front 
edge of the fore-wings is gray. 
The eggs, which measure about one-tenth of an inch in 
diameter, are slightly convex above and below, the convex 
portions being whitish, and the sides being brown. Each 
female deposits upon the under side of leaves from two to 
three hundred eggs, which hatch in the course of about ten 
days. While the female is flying about and engaged to 
deposit these eggs she looks very much like a bat. 
This handsome insect has, like the cecropia, feathered 
antennz in both sexes; those of the males are very broad, 
almost looking like a third pair of small wings. These an- 
tennz contain an immense number of sense organs. The 
females, which do not fly before their eggs are fertilized, are 
quite sluggish until that time. Virgin females can be utilized 
