COCOON, PUPA, AND MOTH 21 



and crawled all over every part of the walls, for the 

 eggs were as carefully gummed to their support as if 

 tlie moth had laid them on twigs or leaves, as she 

 would have done had she been able to emerge from the 

 cocoon. Of course these eggs were useless, as the 

 moth had not mated. 



The attacine moths, cecropia, gloi^eri, promethea^ and 

 angid'ffera, leave one end of the outer cocoon open and 

 spun with long filaments which cover the opening, 

 while the end of the inner cocoon is open, but so spun 

 that it looks like the top of a bag gathered in "puckers " 

 by a draw-string. There is no draw-string in the 

 cocoon, however, and the emerging moth needs no 

 cutter or fluid, but has only to push through the open- 

 ing, whose " puckers " straighten out under the pres- 

 sure, giving ample room for the moth to crawl out. It 

 is because the silk is so broken into short lengths that 

 it cannot be reeled from the cocoon in threads long 

 enough to be of any commercial value as silk. 



Once free from the cocoon, or the pupa-skin, the 

 moth scrambles about until it finds a stem, stick, or 

 the side of a box or house — something which offers a 

 surface up which it can crawl. At this time the moth 

 looks all head, body, and legs, with very small wings 

 like soft, limp, moist flaps dangling from its thorax, a 

 great contrast to the fully developed insect. Having 

 crawled up the support as far as it wishes to go, the 

 moth hangs by its feet with the wings down, moving 

 its abdomen as if it were pumping fluid from it into 

 the wings. Whether or not this pumping motion 

 has anything to do with the expansion of the wings 

 we have not been able to learn, but in any case the 



