220 CATEEPILLARS AND THEIR MOTHS 



so we hoped for an egg-layer, and put the moth care- 

 fully into a box. We learned later that the antennae 

 of the male are very feathery and his coloring is 

 deeper, and our closer look at the moth showed that it 

 was not a smerinthid, though we had a hunt to find 

 out what it was. 



This moth was so freshly emerged that we tied her 

 out of the window as soon as the birds had gone to 

 roost, and took her in before daylight. To our great 

 satisfaction, the bit of worsted with which she was tied 

 was dotted with little pale green disks, flat and trans- 

 lucent, like gelatin lozenges colored with lime-juice. 

 Cutting off the w^orsted, we put the moth in a box and 

 left her in peace, and she laid many eggs. 



On the seventh day the embryo could be seen curled 

 in the egg, but it required a magnifier to see it. On 

 the twelfth day the eggs were dirty yellowish and 

 opaque, and the next day the caterpillars hatched. 

 Their heads, legs, props, and body were pale yellow, 

 and the body was densely covered with long white 

 hairs and a few dark ones. The hairs were very long 

 on the thoracic segments, long on the anal segment, 

 and shorter on the others. When looked down upon, 

 the outline of the back was, owing to the hairs, that of 

 a hand-glass. 



They rested on both sides of the sassafras-leaves, 

 and moved as rapidly as canjce. When disturbed they 

 dropped by a silk thread ; when touched they curled 

 up like the woolly bears. Their longest hairs were 

 longer than their bodies. They drank eagerly and ate 

 holes through the leaves irregularly. Their bodies 

 grew green after feeding. Part ate ash, part beach- 



