MOTHS OF THE LIMBERLOST 



The pupse are nearly two inches long and are tan 

 coloured. They usually are found in the ground in free- 

 dom, or deep under old logs among a mass of leaves spun 

 together. In captivity the caterpillars seem to thrive 

 best on a diet of purslane, and they pupate perfectly on 

 dry sand in boxes. 



These moths have more complete internal develop- 

 ment than those of night, for they feed and live through- 

 out the summer. I photographed a free one feasting on 

 the sweets of petunias in a flower bed at the Cabin, on 

 the seventh of October. A few days before, Raymond 

 had told me that he almost captured one at his home, and 

 as we just had passed through a week of severe cold, 

 there was a chance that he might have been mistaken, but 

 the next day one came to a bed of nasturtiums beside 

 which I was standing, and then darted across to the 

 petunias. 



I had photographed a Lineata several years before, as it 

 hovered over a head of dock. It may have been a female 

 searching for a place to deposit her eggs, or it may have 

 fed on the pollen of the blooming dock weed. A second 

 study had been made two years later when one clam- 

 bered over some rose bushes, but these would not 

 compare as pictures with a Lineata hovering over 

 a flower, because all of the summer from early morning 

 until late evening, that was their accustomed location, 

 and they may have flown during the night. I have 



167 



