THE ESCAPE OF THE MOTH. 
119 
but if it is spun in June, the moth has plenty of 
summer weather before her, and will make her 
appearance at the end of three or four weeks. 
But it is very extraordinary, that some moths 
have a fixed and certain hour of the day or night 
for coming out of their cocoons, when they will 
burst forth let the weather be what it may. Thus 
the wild silkworm that spins the Tusseh silk, 
always escapes in the middle of the night; while 
the moth of the common silkworm comes out at 
sunrise. The hawk moth, the caterpillar of which 
feeds on the evening primrose, appears also at 
sunrise; and the hawk moth of the lime tree 
appears with equal certainty at noon. Then the 
great death’s head moth need never be expected 
before four in the afternoon, or after seven in the 
evening; thus following some law unknown to us, 
but fixed and unchangeable. 
And a law just as mysterious prevails with 
regard to the moths that come out of their cocoons 
in the cold and stormy month of February. 
A gentleman once caught one of these moths, 
and kept her in confinement. She laid her eggs; 
the caterpillars were hatched, ate voraciously, 
changed their skins, and went through all the 
circumstances of their caterpillar life. They then 
spun cocoons, and changed into the chrysalis state. 
There were as many as thirty-six of these cocoons, 
but when February came, only twelve of them 
