BOMBYCIDS. 109 
insect, and in preparing specimens for the cabinet the abdomen 
should be opened from the under side and its contents removed, the 
space being filled with cotton. <Attacus promethia is a day-flyer : 
but although such a common insect, it is seldom seen on the wing un- 
less one is assembling the males with a captive female. When 
following up the scent, the insects do not seem to know fear, and 
one may gather by hand the specimens hovering about a captive 
female, almost as readily as he may pick roses in a garden. 
One of my brothers had an amusing experience on one of his 
collecting tours through the country where he carried a live female, 
Attacus promethia, fastened in a net to the frame of his bicycle. 
In wheeling along the road he could watch the train of eager suitors 
as they followed his tracks, crossing where he crossed and stopping 
and circling about where he stopped. Coming to a farmhouse, he 
went in for a drink of water leaning his wheel against a tree. As 
the good lady brought out the drink of water he innocently asked 
her if she ever saw any butterflies in that neighborhood. “ No,” 
said she, “ they are pretty scarce about here; I don’t know when I 
have seen one.” By this time the train of moths began to arrive 
and flutter about the lawn. ‘“ Why,” said the old lady, “there is 
one now, a big one; and there is another and another. I haven’t 
seen so many butterflies before this summer. Why /ook at them. 
Did you ever see the like? I never saw so many butterflies before 
in all my hfe.” Having thanked her for the water, my brother 
mounted his wheel and rode away, followed by the flock of * butter- 
flies,” ieaving the old lady standing on the lawn and looking after 
him in open-mouthed wonder. 
Attacus angulifera is a moth closely related to the preceding. It 
is a rare insect in the Northern and Eastern States, but is plentiful 
in some parts of the South, where the lava feeds on the leaves of the 
buttonwood. The cocoons spun by this caterpillar, which closely 
resembles A. promethia, also resemble those of that insect, and are 
attached to the stems in the same manner. They are, however, 
larger and less firm. The moths hatch in June, and are day-flying 
insects. The female is a rich tan color, witha black wavy line ex- 
tending across all the wings and the eye-spot near the tip of the fore 
wing, similar to A. promethia. The male somewhat resembles the 
female of A. promethia in the color pattern of its wings, but is of a 
dark yellowish and ochreous-yellow stippled with dark brown or 
black. 
