390 



LEPIDOPTEPA. 



Cocoons of the same kind are sometimes found suspended 

 to the twigs of the wild cherry-tree, the Azalea, or swamp- 

 pink, and the Cephalanthus, or button-bush, but not so 

 often as on the sassafras-tree. Two of them, hanging close 

 together on one twig, were once brought to me, and a male 

 and a female moth were produced from these twin cocoons 

 in July, the usual time for these insects to leave their winter 

 quarters. Drury called this kind of moth Promethea, a 

 mistake probably for Prometheus* the name of one of the 

 Titans, all of whom were fabled to be of gigantic size. The 

 color of Attacus Promethea differs according to the sex. 

 The male (Fig. 186) is of a deep smoky brown color on the 



Fig. 186. 



upper side, and the female (Fig. 187) light reddish brown ; 

 in both, the wings are crossed by a wavy whitish line near 

 the middle, and have a wide clay-colored border, which is 

 marked by a wavy reddish line ; near the tips of the fore 

 wings there is an eye-like black spot within a bluish-white 

 crescent ; near the middle of each of the wings of the female 

 there is an angular reddish-white spot, edged with black ; 

 these angular spots are visible on the under side of the wings 



* Atlas was the brother of Prometheiis, and this name, it will be recollected, 

 has been given to another of the Bombyces, an immensely large moth from China. 



