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found on apple, cherry, and plum trees, and on currant and barberry bushes in July and August. When young it is of a deep yellow color, with rows of minute black warts on its back. It comes to its full size by the first of September,

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and then measures three inches or more in length, and is thicker than a man's thumb. It is then entirely of a fine, clear, light green color; on the top of the second ring are two large globular coral-red warts, beset with about fourteen very short black bristles; the two warts on the top of the third ring are like those on the second, but rather larger; on the top of the seven following rings there are two very long egg-shaped yellow warts, bristled at the end, and a single wart of larger size on the eleventh ring; on each side of the body there are two longitudinal rows of long light blue warts, bristled at the end, and an additional short row, below them, along the first five rings. This caterpillar does not bear confinement well; but it may be seen spinning its cocoon, early in September, on the twigs of the trees or bushes on which it lives. The cocoon (Fig. 184,

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Fig. 185, pupa) is fastened longitudinally to the side of a twig. It is, on an average, three inches long, and one inch

in diameter at the widest part. Its shape is an oblong oval, pointed at the upper end. It is double, the outer coat being wrinkled, and resembling strong

brown paper in color and thickness; when this tough outer coat is cut open, the inside will be seen to be lined with a quantity of loose, yellow-brown, strong

Fig. 185.

silk, surrounding an inner oval cocoon, composed of the same kind of silk, and closely woven like that of the silkworm. The insect remains in the chrysalis form through the winter. The moth, which comes forth in the following summer, would not be able to pierce the inner cocoon, were it not for the fluid provided for the purpose of softening the threads; but it easily forces its way through the outer cocoon at the small end, which is more loosely woven than elsewhere, and the threads of which converge again, by their own elasticity, so as almost entirely to close the opening after the insect has escaped.

A few brown and curled leaves may frequently be seen hanging upon sassafras-trees during the winter, when all the other leaves have fallen off. If one of these leaves is examined, it will be found to be retained by a quantity of silken thread, which is wound or woolded round the twig to the distance of half an inch or more on each side of the leaf-stalk, and is thence carried downwards around the stalk to an oval cocoon, that is wrapped up by the sides of the leaf. The cocoon itself is about an inch long, of a regular oval shape, and is double, like that of the Cecropia caterpillar; but the outer coat is not loose and wrinkled, and the space between the outer and inner coats is small, and does not contain much floss silk. So strong is the coating of silk that surrounds the leaf-stalk, and connects the cocoon with the branch, that it cannot be severed without great force; and consequently the chrysalis swings securely within its leaf-covered hammock through all the storms of winter.

Cocoons of the same kind are sometimes found suspended to the twigs of the wild cherry-tree, the Azalea, or swamppink, 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

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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 Prometheus, and this name, it will be recollected, has been given to another of the Bombyces, an immensely large moth from China.

of the male, but are rarely seen on their upper side; the hind wings in both are rounded and not tailed. These moths expand from three inches and three quarters to four inches and a quarter. The female deposits her eggs on the twigs of the trees, in little clusters of five or six together, and these are hatched towards the end of July or early in August. The caterpillars usually come to their full size by the beginning of September, and then measure two inches or more in length, when extended, and about half an inch in diameter. The body of the caterpillar is very plump, and but very little contracted on the back between the rings. It is of a clear and pale bluish-green color; the head, the

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feet, and the tail are yellow; there are about eight warts on each of the rings; the two uppermost warts on the top of the second and of the third rings are almost cylindrical, much longer than the rest, and of a rich coral-red color; there is a long yellow wart on the top of the eleventh ring; all the rest of the warts are very small, and of a deep blue color. Before making its cocoon the caterpillar instinctively fastens to the branch the leaf that is to serve for a cover to its cocoon, so that it shall not fall off in the autumn, and then proceeds to spin on the upper side of the leaf, bending

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