456 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



are light brown, with black spots, and the triangular anal mark is chocolate brown. 

 The cocoon is suspended by a cord attached to the loose outer silk, which does not 

 prevent its being reeled. The silk is yellowish gray, coarse, and brilliant. There are 

 two broods in a year, the second remaining in the cocoon during the winter. 



The moth expands nearly six inches, and is of a pale reddish yellow, varying some- 

 what in shades, with the inner half of the costa of the fore wings and the front of the 

 thorax ashy gray. A pink or whitish line, with an inner edging of dark scales, crosses 

 the outer part of all the wings, and a faint reddish line extends across* the base. On 

 the end of the cell in each wing is a circular eye-spot having a transparent centre, 

 edged with black on the outside, but with white and red towards the base of the wing. 

 The fore wings are more falcate in the males than in the females. In China this 

 species is said to be reared in the open air in the wild state, and also under cover on 

 branches of the trees, the ends of which are placed in water to keep them fresh. In 

 this country they feed on oak, beech, and liquidamber. 



I'he Cecropia silk-worm, Platysamia cecropia, which has a wide distribution in 

 the United States, is one of our largest moths, expanding six inches or more. It has 

 a most remarkable appetite, feeding on no less than fifty different species of plants, 

 among which are the apple, plum, maple, elra, oak, beech, birch, willow, etc. The 

 female lays from two to three hundred eggs, singly or in small clusters, on the under- 

 side of tlie leaves. These eggs, which are creamy white and striped with reddish, 

 hatch in eight or ten days. The young caterpillars are black, with minute, black, 

 hairy tubercles on the surface of their bodies. At each moult they change in color as 

 well as in size ; and, when mature, they are from three to four inches in length, of a 

 pale green, or bluish-green color. The tubercles on the third and fourth segments are 

 coral red, the others on the back are yellow, except those on the second and last seg- 

 ments, which, with those along the sides, are blue ; and all are more or less armed with 

 black bristles. When mature they crawl to some small branch or twig, on which 

 they construct elongated, coarse, dull brown cocoons, in which they pass the winter. 

 The wings of the moth are of a rich brown color, sprinkled with gray scales, with 

 a large kidney-shaped spot, shaded more or less with red, and margined with black, 

 near the middle of each wing. A red band, edged on the inside with white, crosses 

 the wings a little beyond the middle. The outer edges of the wings are of a pale, 

 silky brown, tlirough which runs an irregular black line on the fore wings, and a double, 

 broken band takes its place on the hind wings. The base of the fore wings is dull red, 

 with a curved white and black line ; and near their apex is a black eye-spot with a 

 -bluish crescent in it, and a shade of lilac above. This moth has not as yet been suc- 

 cessfully cultivated for silk, because of the difficulty in reeling the cocoons. 



The ailanthus silk-worm, PMlosamia cynthia, of China, has been introduced into 

 Europe and America, along with its food plant, Ailanthus glandulosa, and has readily 

 adapted itself to the climate, so that it is now rather a common species in some local- 

 ities, 'escaped from cultivation.' The female deposits about two hundred and fifty 

 eggs, oval in form, cream-colored, and spotted with dark green or black particles. The 

 cyoung caterpillar is yellowish, with five longitudinal rows of black spots, and six black 

 tubercles with white bristles on each segment; the head is also black. The mature 

 caterpillar is about three inches long, of a light bluish-green color, with a yellowish 

 head and blue tubercles, and presenting the appearance as shown in Fig. 575. When 

 done feeding it draws a leaf pai-tly together, within which it spins its cocoon ; and, in a 

 few weeks, the moth emerges. Those of the second brood remain in their cocoons on 



