234 CATERPILLARS AND THEIR MOTHS 



with light bhie, and the other props with a bkie spot 

 on each. The spiracles were black, with a white dot 

 at each end. The bodies looked slightly pitted. The 

 tubercles grew bluish, except those nearest the head 

 and the substigmatal row, which were distinctly blue. 

 Some of the crawlers had all the tubercles pale blue. 



In each molt they ate the cast skins. 



The first ones spun nine days after the last molt, 

 thirty-seven days from the egg. The last ones of the 

 same brood were one hundred and five days from egg 

 to cocoon, but were not larger than the first. The 

 largest were almost three inches long. 



They are very pretty caterpillars, and their tins are 

 always pleasant to work over because of their fra- 

 grance. After the third molt they are very voracious, 

 and it is no small task to provide food for a brood of 

 three or four hundred. 



The cocoon is much like that of promethea^ which is 

 more common, and likely to be found first by be- 

 ginners. It is a deep bag with a " handle " of silk 

 spun over the leaf-stem, and holding the stem to the 

 twig, so that it does not fall with the other leaves, but 

 dangles all winter unless cut off by hunters. It is 

 usually of a weather-beaten gray, or a gray-tan color, 

 with the upper end loosely spun, as by this the moth 

 emerges. 



We tried some experiments with our last lot of co- 

 coons, reversing them before they were finished. If 

 hung wrong end uppermost when the outer cocoon was 

 still transparent, the caterpillar finished the cocoon, 

 making the stem end the solid bottom, and leaving the 

 cocoon loose at the end now uppermost. 



