Vermont Botanical and Bird Clubs 13 



the natural thing for me to put the pupa of this strange cocoon hack 

 into its cradle and file it away to await results. 



I found the specimen the last of October, and it was well into the 

 following May before the moth emerged. Its rough handling mani- 

 fested itself in an imperfect and crumpled object, that was impossible 

 to identify with certainty. I must wait and watch as the summer came. 

 My class was more enthusiastic in moth culture than the previous year, 

 and all specimens were carefully labelled, fed, and finally filed as col- 

 lected. One of the labels read thus: "Caterpillar, fuzzy with yellow 

 hairs, 2 pairs black pencils front, 1 pair back, about l 1 /* in. long, found 

 in garden (traveling), full grown, Aug. 20, 1917." 



It was in its box only a few days before it made its cocoon in one 

 corner. The following May it hatched, and although it was not a per- 

 fect specimen, I was able to identify it as Acronycta (Apatela) amer- 

 icana. the American dagger moth. 



That year a prize was offered by the Hartland Nature Club for the 

 best collection of cocoons made by the schools. These collections were 

 sent to me for identification, and those specimens that I was uncertain 

 of I put in my hatchery, with the result that one of them attached to a 

 small decayed branch emerged as an American dagger. Upon exam- 

 ination of the cococn, I found the same characteristic present as in my 

 unknown one, that the inner portion had been made of the bark and 

 some of the wood of the branch. I saw, also, in comparing the crumpled 

 specimen with the more perfect one, that the bodies were similar. 



The following year I was fortunate in finding several caterpillars 

 like the one my class had labelled. One of these failed to spin a cocoon, and 

 conveniently dried in such a way as to add to my series of specimens. 

 I carefully watched the remaining ones during their transformation 

 and was again thrilled by the magic of these tiny creatures, making 

 their grooves in the paper boxes, and deftly incorporating the bits into 

 their cocoons. One of them made a cocoon with two distinct coverings, 

 probably owing to the softer and coarser quality of the box in which 

 it was placed. The other two cleverly kept the appearance of the out- 

 door specimen, while really making the two coverings into one. 



In the latter part of May, 1919, a perfect specimen of this dagger 

 moth flew to my screen, seemingly for the express purpose of complet- 

 ing my series, that should reveal at a glance what had taken me four 

 years to discover. I have been unable to find any descriptions that 

 reveal the unique and interesting habit that this moth has in making 



