Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . gh and impervious to water ; inside this you find a massM of more loosely spun silk, and fft^ ^5^ lining the whole, another tough ^^^^^*^ wall. Inside the latter wall you will find the brown pupa, withthe dried remains of the larvalskin crowded into one end ofthe cavity. Notice how firmlythe cocoon is attached to thetwig by the silken threads ofwhich it is made up. By keeping some of these co-coons in a large box, one is likelyto oret the beautiful moths inMay or June. As the season ofemergence approac
Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . gh and impervious to water ; inside this you find a massM of more loosely spun silk, and fft^ ^5^ lining the whole, another tough ^^^^^*^ wall. Inside the latter wall you will find the brown pupa, withthe dried remains of the larvalskin crowded into one end ofthe cavity. Notice how firmlythe cocoon is attached to thetwig by the silken threads ofwhich it is made up. By keeping some of these co-coons in a large box, one is likelyto oret the beautiful moths inMay or June. As the season ofemergence approaches it is worthwhile to keep the cocoons underdaily observation so that per-chance you may see the moth as it first comes forth,when its body is distended and the wings mere shouldertufts. A small stick or other support should be provided,so that the moth can crawl up and let its body hangvertically. Then you may be able to see the expansionof the wings as the blood is forced into the veins. One day last September a caterpillar of this Cecropiamoth was brought to the studio. It was a 152. Flu. ijo. — ^ uf Ce-cropia Moth. strange- Insects in Winter. looking creature with its immense bod}^ covered with many warty projections, some of which were bright coral red (Fig. 136). I placed it on a fresh apple tw^ig, of which it ate a fe\v of the leaves, but the next morning it had begun the construction of its cocoon by drawing some of the leaves in toward the twio^ and coverino^ them with silk. At first the caterpillar could be seen through the thin covering spinning its silken shroud, but soon the layers were so dense that it was hidden from view. Sometimes in-stead of a mothyou may get fromyour cocoons four-winged ichneumon-flies. These areparasites w h i c hhave destroyed thehost and devel-oped at its expense,while on the treesthe cocoons are
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1901
