ATTACUS CECROPIA 255 



Country people often tell us how badly cecropia cater- 

 pillars bite or sting. This is utterly impossible from 

 their structure, and we have handled hundreds of 

 them with no such experience. 



The pupae have very marked antennae-covers, and 

 their sex is easily told by them. 



The moth is our largest spinner. Its head and 

 thorax are red, a rusty red ; the collar is very white ; 

 the abdomen is red, with bands of white and black. 

 The wings are pepper-and-salt or iron-gray, with a 

 cross-band of black, white, and red ; the apical eye-spot 

 is in its purplish patch on the fore wings, and there is 

 a crescent of white, bordered with red and black, on 

 each wing. The wings are bordered with clay-brown, 

 much grayer on the under side. The antennae are 

 broadly pectinate. 



These are superb moths, with very furry bodies and 

 legs. They fly late, never mating, as far as we can 

 learn, before twelve o'clock, and usually not before 

 four in the morning. They do not feed, as their max- 

 illae are not developed. They may be caught near 

 electric lights or lighted windows, and will fl}^ into 

 open windows if a bright light is in the room. They 

 are sometimes found under shed-roofs by day, and 

 may be tracked to their hiding-places by their strong 

 odor, especially strong in the females. The easiest 

 way of getting them, however, is by collecting the co- 

 coons in winter, or, better yet, as early as possible after 

 the leaves fall in the autumn, before the birds go 

 cocooning. Blue jaj's eat the pupae of cecropia, and so 

 do some woodpeckers, but we have never seen the 

 caterpillar touched by any bird. Jays, robins, and 



