\ive their first larval moult. This jour- 

 ney was short; we were confined in the 

 leather case two days, but there were 

 frequent short periods when we were 

 taken out for inspection. Great changes 

 were going on inside our thick shells, 

 hints of which were given by their lead- 

 en color. Sixteen days in this stage, 

 when one by one we ate our way out to 

 the light of day and our conscious exist- 

 ence had begun. 



We were then, you must know, tiny 

 caterpillars fully a quarter of an inch 

 long, with bodies all black. Of course, 

 we had the six tiny jointed legs on the 

 front part or thorax, as all well regu- 

 lated Insects have, and in addition four 

 pairs of prop-legs and one pair of ana^. 

 props, thick flaps by which we could 

 clmg tightly to a support. Then on most 

 of the segments or rings of the body 

 were little bunches or tubercles, horn- 

 colored at first, and bearing each a few 

 little short hairs. Little Cecropias do 

 not eat their cast shells, as do some of 

 their near relatives. It has always 

 seemed to me that they must be hard to 

 digest. 



We were at this time, and indeed al- 

 ways, objects of much interest to our 

 foster-mother, though we cannot lay any 

 great claims to beauty at this early stage, 

 our marvelous colors not appearing un- 

 til later. We were often on exhibition, 

 but we came to take this much as a mat- 

 ter of course. I remember in particular 

 two little maids who came often to look 

 at us. One came to admire, but the 

 other called us worms, and said other 

 slanderous things. Now everybody 

 knows that we have no relationship 

 with the worms, who are really very 

 \ulgar creatures living in the earth 

 without legs or wings or eyes. 



To have received so much attention 

 had we lived natural lives out of doors, 

 would have meant almost certain death ; 

 for eyes sharp enough to spy us out 

 would have belonged to enemies. And 

 this, of course, was why we are given 

 black coats while we are small, to match 

 the markings on stems and leaves ; but 

 before we become large enough to be 

 conspicuous our color changes to green 

 tc blend with the foliage. Our most 



dreaded enemies at first are the ichneu- 

 mon-flies which deposit their eggs when 

 they get a chance in the skin of the cat- 

 erpillars when it is soft after a moult. 

 There they hatch and undergo changes 

 similar to our own, sapping the life 

 blood and finally causing the untimely 

 death of their victims. 



Our diet was a matter of great con- 

 cern, as it always is with infants. A 

 large book on the care of young Moths 

 was consulted and by its advice willow 

 leaves were selected. From the second 

 day after hatching when we began to 

 eat, until the close of larval Hfe when we 

 gave up eating, this was our only food. 

 It was brought to us regularly, fresh 

 picked with the dew still upon it. 



I am told that with human infants 

 teething is the trying period ; with Moths 

 it is moulting. This ordeal must be 

 gone through with not once but many 

 times. You see, our skins are not very 

 elastic ; and as we eat and grow rapidly, 

 it soon gets too small and must be 

 shed. A new skin is always forming 

 under the old, which cracks finally and 

 is wriggled off. We moulted first about 

 the fourth day, after which we were 

 much larger. Then on the ninth day 

 again we changed, and found our new 

 skins had some traces of yellow. About 

 three weeks later most of us were ready 

 for a third skin; our heads were then 

 green with black markings, bodies yel- 

 low with lines of black dots, and some 

 of the tubercles which from now on were 

 very prominent, were colored red and 

 yellow. At one of these early moults it 

 was that most of our number met death 

 from some unknown trouble ; and only 

 five of us survived. But even this was 

 probably a larger number than could 

 have lived under natural conditions un- 

 protected as we were. 



Our little cage soon became too small 

 for us, and we were put into a larger 

 one. At first we were almost lost in it, 

 but before many weeks we had grown 

 to it; and before the summer was over 

 a third and much larger one was needed. 



After our second moult we were 

 again taken on a journey by train. In 

 the same leather prison we spent a hot 

 and dusty night and day. Fortunately 



42 



