FAMOUS SPINNERS 
117 
alis. It has neither head nor feet, and the wings 
of the future moth are folded over the breast. 
It is golden-yellow at first, but gradually deepens 
to chestnut brown. In about three weeks’ time a 
creamy white moth comes out. The life of one 
of these is brief indeed, but the females lay a host 
of eggs before they go—sometimes as many as 
four hundred each. When first laid the eggs are 
pale yellow and look as though they had been 
covered with varnish. They soon turn gray. 
Dainty little eggs of promise! How careful the 
silk grower is to save every one.” 
“ What about wild silkworms, Auntie? ” Alice 
wanted to know. “ I saw a cocoon woven in a 
network such as you have described in a hazel 
bush last week when we were camping. I passed 
it by, supposing it to be the egg-sac of a spider.” 
“ It was probably the cocoon of Madam 
Cecropia,” informed Uncle John, who had just 
joined the group. “ She is the largest of our 
American silkworms, of which we have several 
species. The moth herself is a beautiful grayish- 
brown creature marked with reddish and yellow 
spots and bands. Her full-grown larvae are large 
green fellows handsomely decorated with six tiny 
coral-red knobs on the thorax and a number of 
blue knobs on the abdomen. They feed upon all 
rosaceous plants—that is all those of spreading- 
petal type like the rose, apple, plum, bramble, 
