90 CATERPILLARS AND THEIR MOTHS 



pillar-hunters and that it was well to be first in the 

 field. 



The caterpillar saved from sudden death proved very 

 nearly full grown, and was different from any One of 

 Us had seen. This was exciting, and she searched the 

 vine as far up as she could see, and on the two sides 

 of the house, but found no more caterpillars like this 

 one which was eating peacefully in her pocket tin. 

 The next step was to find out what it was, and she 

 looked through all the descriptions of sphingid cater- 

 pillars, and at all the pictures of them she could find ; 

 but none was just like it, so she fed the crawler, hoping 

 to identify the moth it would make. This was a vain 

 hope. The caterpillar pupated finely, but a few weeks 

 later was found to be only a pupa-skin filled with 

 fungus. 



This was one of the many blows which fall upon the 

 caterpillar-hunter or entomologist, and must be ex- 

 pected. 



The next June One of Us was searching a woodbine, 

 the common American woodbine, and found on one 

 lobe of a leaf six pale green eggs, and on another seven 

 more. Some of the eggs had been laid longer than 

 others, for they had turned yellowish. Probably they 

 were laid by different moths. All had the shells 

 marked like honeycomb or hammered silver, and the 

 oldest ones showed the little larvae through the trans- 

 parent shells. One of Us searched farther and found 

 an egg on a tendril, just where it curled at one tip, and 

 then she spied an egg set among a cluster of flower- 

 buds, and of exactly their size, shape, and color at that 

 stage of their growth. After this she examined many 



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