 CHAPTER 1 OF MOTHS OF THE LIMBERLOSS MOTHS OF THE LIMBERLOSS To me the limberloss is a word with which to conjure, a spot wherein to revel. The swamp lies in northeastern Indiana, nearly one hundred miles south of the Michigan line, and ten west of the Ohio. In its day it covered a large area. When I arrived, there was no place for me. To me the limberloss is a word with which to conjure, a spot wherein to revel. The swamp lies in northeastern Indiana, nearly one hundred miles south of the Michigan line, and ten west of the Ohio. In its day it covered a large area. When I arrived, there were miles of unbroken forests, lakes provided with boats for navigation, streams of running water, the roads around the edges corduroy, made by felling and sinking large trees in the muck. Then the winter swamp had all the lacy exquisite beauty of such locations, when snow and frost draped, while from May until October it was practically tropical jungle. From it I have sent to scientists flowers and vines not then classified and illustrated in our botanies. It was a piece of forethought to work unceasingly at that time, for soon commerce attacked the swamp and began its usual process of devastation. Canadian lumbermen came seeking tall straight timber for ship mass and tough heavy trees for beams. Grand Rapids followed and stripped the forest of hardwood for fine furniture, and through my experience with the lumbermen, Freckles' story was written. Afterward hoop and stavemen and local mills took the best of the softwood. Then a ditch, in reality a canal, was dredged across the north end through my best territory, and that carried the water to the Wabash River until oilmen could enter the swamp. From that time the wealth they drew to the surface constantly materialized in macadamized roads, cozy homes, and big farms of unsurpassed richness, suitable for growing onions, celery, sugar beets, corn and potatoes, as repeatedly has been explained in everything I have written of the place. Now the limberlost exists only in ragged spots and patches, but so rich was it in the beginning that there is yet a wealth of work for a lifetime remaining to me in these, and river thickets. I ask no better hunting grounds for birds, moths, and flowers. The fine roads are a convenience and settled farms of protection to be taken into consideration when bewailing its dismantling. It is quite true that one man's meat is another's poison, when poor limber, lost and starving in the fastnesses of the swamp, gave to it a name, afterward to be on the lips of millions, to him it was deadly poison. To me it has been of unspeakable interest, unceasing work of joyous nature and meat in full measure, with occasional sweetbreads by way of a treat. Primarily I went to the swamp to study and reproduce the birds. I never thought they could have a rival in my heart, but these fragile night wanderers, these moonflowers of June's darkness, literally thrust themselves upon me. When my cameras were placed before the home of a pair of birds, the bushes parted to admit light, and clinging to them I found a creature, often having the bird's sweep of wing, of color pale green, with decorations of lavender and yellow, or running the gamut from palest tans to darkest browns, with markings of pink or dozens of other irresistible combinations of color, the feathered folk found a competitor that often outdistanced them in my affections. For I am captivated easily by color and beauty of form. At first these moths made studies of exquisite beauty. I merely stopped a few seconds to reproduce them before proceeding with my work. Soon I found myself filling the waiting-time when birds were slow in coming before the cameras, when clouds obscured the light too much for fast exposures, or on gray days by searching for moths. Then, in collecting abandoned nests, cocoons were found on limbs, inside stumps, among leaves when gathering nuts, or queer shining pupae cases came to light as I lifted wildflowers in the fall. All these were carried to my little conservatory, placed in as natural conditions as possible, and studies were made from the moths that emerged the following spring. I am not sure but that moths of the Limberloss cabin would be the most appropriate title for this book. Sometimes, before I had finished with them, they paired, mated, and dotted everything with fertile eggs, from which tiny caterpillars soon would emerge. It became a matter of intense interest to provide their natural foods and raise them. That started me to watching for caterpillars and eggs out of doors, and friends of my work began carrying them to me. Repeatedly, I have gone through the entire life process, from mating newly emerged moths, the egg period, caterpillar life, with its complicated molts and changes, the spinning of cocoons, the miraculous winter sleep, to the spring appearance, and with my cameras recorded each stage of development. Then, on platinum paper, printed so lightly from these negatives as to give only an exact reproduction of forms, and with water-color medium copied each mark, line, and color gradation, in most cases from the living moth at its prime. Never was the study of birds so interesting. The illustration of every moth book I have ever seen, that attempted colored reproduction, proved by the shriveled bodies and unnatural position of the wings, that it had been painted from objects mounted from weeks to years in private collections or museums. A lifeless moth fades rapidly under the most favorable conditions. A moth at eight days of age in the last stages of decline is from four to six distinct shades lighter in color than at six hours from the cocoon when it is dry and ready for flight. As soon as circulation stops and the life juices evaporate from the wings and body, the color grows many shades paler. If exposed to light, moths soon fade almost beyond recognition. I make no claim to being an entomologist. I quite agree with the autocrat of the breakfast table, that the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp. If my life depended upon it, I could not give the scientific name of every leased organ and nerve of a moth, and as for wrestling with the thousands of tiny species of day and night, or even attempting all the ramifications of, say, the alluringly beautiful catechole family, life is too short and less devoted to this purpose alone. But if I frankly confess my limitations and offer the book to my nature-loving friends merely as an introduction to the most exquisite creation of the swamp and the outside history as it were of the evolution of these creatures from moth to moth again, surely no one can feel defrauded. Since the publication of A Girl of the Limberlost, I have received hundreds of letters asking me to write of my experiences with the Lepidoptera of the swamp. This book professes to be nothing more. Because so many enemies prey upon the large night moths in all stages, they are nowhere sufficiently numerous to be pests, or common enough to be given local names as have the birds. I have been compelled to use their scientific names to assist in identification, and at times I have had to resort to technical terms, because there were no other. Frequently I have written of them under the names by which I knew them in childhood, or that we of Limberlost cabin have bestowed upon them. There was a wide gulf between a naturalist and a nature-lover. A naturalist devotes his life to delving into stiff scientific problems concerning everything in nature from her greatest to her most minute forms. A nature-lover works at any occupation and finds recreation in being out of doors and appreciating the common things of life as they appeal to his senses. The naturalist always begins at the beginning, and traces family, sub-family, genus, and species. He deals in Latin and Greek terms of resounding and disheartening combinations. At his hands anatomy and markings become lost in a scientific jargon of patagia, jugum, discosegulars, phagocytes, and so on to the end of the volume. For one who would be a naturalist, a rare specimen indeed, there are many volumes on the market. The list of pioneer Lebedopteris begins authoritatively with Linnaeus, and since his time you can make your selection from the works of Drus, Grotta, Strecker, Bois-Devois, Robinson, Smith, Butler, Fernald, Butenmuller, Hicks, Rothschild, Hampson, Stretch, Lyman, or any of a dozen others. Possessing such an imposing array of names there should be no necessity to add to them. These men have impaled moths, and dissected, magnified, and located brain, heart, and nerves. After finishing the interior, they have given to the most minute exterior organ from two to three inches of Latin name. From them we learn that it requires a coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia, tarsus, ungwis, pulvulus, and interior, medial and posterior spurs to form a leg for a moth. I dislike to weaken my argument that more work along these lines is not required by recording that after all this no one seems to have located the ears definitely. Some believe hearing lies in the antennae. Hicks has made an especial study of a fluid-filled cavity closed by a membrane that he thinks he has demonstrated to be the seat of hearing. Lydig, Gerstacher, and others believe this same organ to be olfactory. Perhaps after all there is room for only one more doctor of science who will permanently settle this and a few other vexing questions for us. But what of the millions of nature-lovers who each year snatch only a brief time afield for rest and recreation? One of the masses of men and women whose daily application to the work of life makes vacation study a burden, or whose business has so broken the habit of study that concentration is distasteful if not impossible. These people number in the ratio of a million to one naturalist. They would be delighted to learn the simplest name possible for the creatures they or their friends find afield, and the markings, habits, and characteristics by which they can be identified. They do not care in the least for species and minute detail concerning anatomy, couched in resounding Latin and Greek terms they cannot possibly remember. I have never seen or heard of any person who on being shown any one of ten of our most beautiful moths did not consider and promptly pronounce it the most exquisite creation he had ever seen and events a lively interest in its history. But when he found it necessary to purchase a textbook, devoid of all human interest or literary possibility, and wade through pages of scientific dissertation all the time having the feeling that, perhaps through his lack of experience, his identification was not a right, he usually preferred to remain in ignorance. It is in the belief that all nature lovers, a field for entertainment or instruction, will be thankful for a simplification of any method now existing for becoming acquainted with moths that this book is written and illustrated. In gathering the material used I think it is quite right that I have lost as many good subjects as I have secured in my efforts to follow the teachings of scientific writers. My complaint against them is that they neglect essential detail and are not always rightly informed. They confuse one with a flood of scientific terms describing minute anatomical parts and fail to explain the simple yet absolutely essential points over which an amateur has trouble. Wheat often only a few words would suffice. For example, any one of half a dozen writers tells us that when a caterpillar finishes eating and is ready to go into winter quarters it crawls rapidly around for a time, empties the intestines, and transformation takes place. Why do not some of them further explain that a caterpillar of, say, six inches in length will shrink to three, its skin becoming loosened, the horns drop limp, and the creature appear dead and disintegrating? Because no one mentioned these things I concluded that the first caterpillar I found in this state was lost to me and threw it away. A few words would have saved the complete history of a beautiful moth to secure which no second opportunity was presented for five years. Several works I consulted united in the simple statement that certain caterpillars pupae in the ground. In Packard's guide you will find this. Lepidopterist pupae should be kept moist in mold until the image appears. I followed this direction, even taking the precaution to bake the earth used because I was very anxious about some rare moths. When they failed to emerge in season I dug them out only to find that those not molded had been held fast by the damp packed earth and were all ruined. I learned by investigation that pupation takes place in a hole worked out by the caterpillar so earth must touch these cases only as they lie upon it. The one word, hole, would have saved all those moths for me. One writer stated that the tongue cases of some pupae turn over and fasten on the back between the wing shields and others were strangely silent on the subject. So for ten months I kept some cases lying on their backs with the feet up and photographed them in that position. I had to discover for myself that caterpillars that pupae in the ground changed to the moth form with the feet and legs folded around the underside of the thorax, the wings wrap over them and the tongue case bends under and is fastened between the wings. For years I could find nothing on the subject of how a moth from a burrowing caterpillar made its appearance. In two recent works I find the statement that the pupae cases come to the surface before the moths leave them. But how the operation is performed is not described or explained. Pupae cases from earth consist of two principal parts, the blunt head and thorax covering and the ringed abdominal sections. With many feeders there is a long fragile tongue shield. The head is rounded and immovable of its own volition. The abdominal part is in rings that can be turned and twisted. On the tip are two shiny needle sharp points and on each of three rings of the abdominal shield there are in many cases a pair of tiny hooks very slight projections yet enough to be of use. Some lepidopterists think that pupae works head first to the surface, pushing with the abdomen. To me this seems impossible. The more one force the blunt head against the earth the closer it would pack and the delicate tongue shield surely would break. There is no projection on the head that would loosen or lift the earth. One prominent lepidopterist I know believes the moth emerges underground and works its way to the surface as it fights to escape a cocoon. I consider this an utter impossibility. Remember the earth encrusted cicada cases you have seen clinging to the trunks of trees after the insect has reached the surface and abandoned them? Think what would happen to the delicate moth head, wings and downy covering. I am willing to wager all I possess that no lepidopterist or any amateur ever found a freshly emerged moth from an underground case with the faintest trace of soil on its head or feet or a particle of down missing as there unquestionably must be if it forced its way to freedom through the damp spring earth with its mouth and feet. The point was settled for me when while working in my garden one came through the surface within a few inches of my fingers working with the tip of the abdomen. It turned, twisted, dug away the dirt, fastened the abdominal tip, pulled up the head and then bored with the tip again. Later I saw several others emerge in the same way and then made some experiments that forever convinced me that this is the only manner in which ground pupae possibly could emerge. One writer I had reason to suppose standard authority stated that caterpillars from Scythoronia regalus eggs emerged in 16 days. So I boxed some eggs deposited on the 11th labeled them due to produce caterpillars on the 27th and put away the box to be attended on that date. Having occasion to move it on the 24th I peeped in and found half my caterpillars out and starved proving that they had been hatched at least 36 hours or longer. Half the others so feeble they soon became inactive and the remainder survived and pupated but if the time specified had been allowed to elapse every caterpillar would have starved. One of the books I read preparatory to doing this work asserts concerning spinners. Most caterpillars make some sort of cocoon or shelter which may be a pure silk neatly wound or of silk mixed with hair and all manner of external things such as pieces of leaf, bark, moss and lichen and even grains of earth. I have had caterpillars spin by the hundred in boxes containing most of these things have gathered outdoor cocoons by the peck and microscopically examined dozens of them and with the exception of leaf twig, bark or some other foundation against which it was spun I never have seen a cocoon with shred, filament or particle of anything used in its composition that was not drawn from the spinning tube or internal organism of the caterpillar with the possible exception of a few hairs from the tubercles. I have been told by other workers that they have had captive caterpillars use earth and excrement in their cocoons. This same work in an article on protective coloration lays emphasis on the statement that among pupa cases artificially fastened to different objects out of doors the elimination was 92% on fences where pupae were conspicuous as against 52% among nettles where they were inconspicuous. This statement is elaborated and commented on as making a strong point for colorative protection through inconspicuousness. Personally I think the nettles did the work regardless of color. I have learned to much experience a field that a patch of nettles or thistles afford splendid protection to any form of life that can survive them. I have seen insects and nesting birds find a safety in their shelter unknown to their kind that home elsewhere. The test is not fair enough to be worth consideration. If the same pupae had been as conspicuously placed as on the fence on any edible growth in the same location as the fence and then left to the mercy of playing children, grazing stock, field mice, snakes, bats, birds, insects and parasites what happened to them would have been different. I doubt very seriously if it would have proved the point those lipidopterists started out to make in these conditions, which are the only fair ones under which such an experiment could be made. Many people mentioned in connection with the specimens they brought me have been more than kind in helping to collect the material this volume contains, but its publication scarcely would have been possible to me. Had it not been for the enthusiasm of my three-year-old boy Raymond Miller he has been my sole helper in many difficult days of field work among the birds and for the moss his interest reached such a pitch that he spent many hours of field in search of eggs, caterpillars, cocoons and moss when my work confined me to the cabin. He has carried to me many of my rarest cocoons and found in their native haunts several moss needed to complete the book. It is to be hoped that these wonderful days of field have brought their own compensation for kindness such as his work adequately. The book proves my indebtedness to the deacon and to Molly Cotton. I also owe thanks to Bob Burdette Black the oldest and warmest friend of my bird work for many fine moss and cocoons and to Professor R. R. Rowley for the laborious task of scientifically criticizing this book and with unparalleled kindness lending a helping hand where an amateur stumbled. End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Moss of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter Chapter 2 Moss, Eggs, Caterpillars, Winter Quarters If you are too fistidious to read this chapter it will be your permanent loss for it contains the life history of the evolution of one of the most amazingly complicated and delicately beautiful creatures in existence. There are moths that come into the world accomplish the functions that perpetuate their kind and go out. Without having taken any nourishment there are others that feed and live for a season. Some fly in the morning others in the glare of noon more in the evening and the most important class of big exquisitely lovely ones is the Pity. For the nocturnal, non-feeding moths are bird-like in size flower-like in rare and complicated colouring and of downy, silent wing. The moths that fly by day and feed are of the Sphinionae group Cilius and Carolina or Corocampionae which includes the exquisite Delaphilia lineata and its cousins also Sphinionae which cover the clear winged, hammer-ist the finnace are the members of what is called the Attacine group comprising our largest and commonest moth Sacropia also its near-relative Gloverae smaller than Sacropia and of lovely rosy wine colour Angulifera the male grayish-brown the female yellowish-red Promethea the male resembling a monster morning cloak butterfly and the female bearing exquisite red wine flushing Cynthia crossed by bands of pinkish lilac and bearing crescents partly yellow the remainder transparent there are also the deep yellow E.O. pale blue-green Luna and Polyphemus brown with pink bands of the Saturnaeae and light yellow red-brown and gray regalus and lavender and yellow imperialus of the Ceratocampidae and their relatives Modest and lovely Modesta belongs with this non-feeders forming a list too long to incorporate for I have not mentioned the catecholae family the four wings of which resemble those of several members of the Sphinaginae in colour and when they take flight the back ones flash out colours that run the gamut from palest to deepest reds yellows and browns crossed by wide circling bands of black with these occasionally the black sober dominates that it appears as if the wing were black and the bands of other colour all of them are so exquisitely beautiful that neither the most exacting descriptions nor photographs from life nor watercolours faithfully copied from living subjects can do them justice they must be seen alive newly emerged, down intact colours at their most brilliant shadings to be appreciated fully with the exception of feeding or refraining from eating the life processes of all these are very similar the heads are divided into three parts the head, thorax and abdomen with the different organs of each the head carries the source of sight scent and the mouth parts if the moth feeds while the location of the ears is not yet settled definitely some scientists place hearing in the antennae others in a little organ on each side of the base of the abdomen Packard writes the eyes are large and globose and vary in the distance apart in different families the range and sharpness of their vision another writer states that the eyes are so incomplete in development that a moth can only distinguish light from darkness and cannot discern your approach at over five feet this accords with my experience with sucropia, polyphemus, regalis and imperialis Luna either can see better here acutely or is naturally of more active habit it is difficult to capture by hand in daytime and Promethea acts as if its vision would be the case as it flies earlier in the day than any of the others named being almost impossible to take by hand unless it is bound to a given spot by sex attraction unquestionably the day flyers that feed the Sphinaginae and Coral Campanay groups have fairly good vision as also the little clear wings tribe for they fly straight to the nectar giving flowers and fruits they like best to feed upon and it is extra good luck if you capture one by hand you will see that all of them see and go to a bright light at night from long distances Holland writes the eyes of the moth are often greatly developed but makes no definite statements as to their range of vision until he reaches the catecholae family of which he records the hind wings are however most brilliantly colored in some species they are banded with pink in others with crimson still others have markings of yellow orange or snowy white to a greater or less extent they are only displayed at night the conclusion is irresistibly forced upon us that the eyes of these creatures are capable of discriminating these colors in the darkness we cannot do it no human eye in the blackness of night can distinguish red from orange or crimson from yellow the human eye is the greatest of all anatomical marvels and the most wonderful piece of animal mechanism in the world responding to certain forms of radiant energy to a degree which it does not possess this conclusion is not irresistibly forced upon me I do believe no in fact that all day flying feeding moths have keener sight and longer range of vision than non-feeders but I do not believe the differing branches of the catecholae group or moths of any family locate each other in the blackness of night by seeing markings distinctly there is no proof that moths, butterflies or any insects recognize or appreciate color male moths mate with females of their kind distinctly different from them in color and male butterflies pair with albinos of their species when these differ widely from the usual coloring a few moths are also provided with small, simple eyes called ocellae these are placed on the top of the head and are so covered with down they cannot be distinguished saved by experts while the compound eyes see farther but he does not prove it if the moth does not feed the mouth parts are scarcely developed if a feeder it has a long tongue that can be coiled in a cleft in the face between the palpi which Packard thinks were originally the feelers this tongue is formed of two grooved parts so fastened together as to make a tube through which it takes flower and fruit nectar and the juices of the king animal matter what are thought by some to be in the face but the exact use of these is yet under discussion it is woefully difficult to learn some of these things in my experience the antennae are the most sensitive and therefore the most important organs of the head to me in the Atticine group these stand out like delicately cut tiny fern fronds or feathers always being broader and more prominent on the male other families are very similar and again they differ widely in shape or they may be of even proportion but flat or round or a feathered shaft so fine as to be unnoticed as it lies pressed against the face some writers say the antennae are the seat of scent, touch and hearing I had not thought nature so impoverished in evolving her forms as to overwork one delicate little organ for three distinct purposes the antennae are situated close where the nose is in almost every form of life and I would prefer to believe that I know a moth suffers most over any injury to them but one takes flight no quicker or more precipitately at a touch on the antennae than on head, wing, leg or abdomen we are safe in laying down a law that antennae are homologous organs and used for identical purposes on all forms of life carrying them the short antennae of grasshoppers appear to be organs of scent the long hair fine ones of katydids and crickets may be also in the way ahead over leaves and limbs the insect feeling its path and stepping where a touch assures it there is safe footing katydids, crickets and grasshoppers all have antennae and all of these have ears definitely located hence their feelers are not for auricular purposes according to my logic those of the moth cannot be either I am quite sure that primarily they serve the purpose of a nose as they are too short in most cases to be of much use as feelers and generally their secondary office if this be true it explains the larger organs of the male the female emerges from winter quarter so weighted with carrying from two to six hundred eggs that she usually remains and develops where she is this throws the business of finding her location on the male he is compelled to take wing and hunt until he discovers her hence his need of more acute sense of scent and touch the organ that is used most I can well believe that the antennae are most important to a moth for a broken one means a spoiled study for me it starts the moth tremulously shivering aimlessly beating crazy in fact and there is no hope of it posing for a picture Dr. Clemens records that sacropia could neither walk nor fly but wield in a senseless manner when deprived of its antennae this makes me sure that they are well aware of the possibility for I have known in one or two cases of chloroform moths reviving and without a struggle or apparent discomfort depositing eggs in a circle around them while impaled to a setting board with a pin thrust through the thorax where of necessity must have passed through or very close the nervous cord and heart the moth is covered completely with silken down like tiny scales colored and marked according to species and so lightly attached and clings to the fingers at the lightest touch from the examination of specimens I have taken that had disfigured themselves it appears that a moth rubbed bare of down would seem as if covered with thinly cut highly polished horn fastened together in divisions this is called chitin by scientists the thorax bears four wings and six legs each having five joints and ending in tiny claws the wings are many veined and covered with scales that are colored according to species and arranged to form characteristic family markings they are a framework usually of twelve hollow tubes or veins that are so connected with the respiratory organs as to be pneumatic these tubes support double membranes covered above and below with down at the basis of the wings lie their nerves the four wings each have a heavy rib running from the base and gradually decreasing to the tip its purpose is to bear the brunt of air pressure in flight on account of being compelled to fly so much more than females the back wings of the males of many species have developed a secondary rib that fits under and supports the front also causing both to work together with the same impulse to flight a stiff bunch of bristles serves the same purpose in most females while some have a lobe extending from the four wing as long as the coster remains unbroken to preserve balance the wings that are tangled in bushes or suffered rough treatment from birds can fly with badly damaged wing surfaces in some species notably the attising group and all non-feeding night flying moths the legs are short closely covered with long down of the most delicate colors of the moth and sometimes decorated with different shades Luna has beautiful lavender legs imperialis yellow and regalus red brown the day flying feeding group have longer slenderer legs that are shorter down and carry more elaborate markings this provision is to enable them to cling firmly to flower or twig while feeding to help them to lift the body higher and walk dexterously in search for food it is also noticeable that these moths have for their size comparatively much longer slenderer wings than the non-feeders and they can turn them back and fold them together in the fly position thus enabling them to force their way into nectar bearing flowers the abdomen is velvet soft to the touch and divided into rings called segments these being so joined that this member can be turned and twisted at will in all cases the last ring contains the sex organs the large abdomen of the female carries several hundred embryo eggs and out of the male the seminal fluid much has been written of moths being able to produce odors that attract the sexes and that are so objectionable as to protect them from birds, mice and bats some believe there are scent glands and a few species under the wing scales I have critically examined scores of wings as to color markings but never noticed or smelled these on some, tufts of bristle like hairs can be thrust out that give a discernable odor but that this carries any distance or is a large factor in attracting the sexes I do not believe so firmly after years of practical experience as I did it in the days when I had most of my moth history from books I have seen this theory confounded so often in practice in June of 1911 close six o'clock in the evening I sat on the front veranda of the cabin in company with my family and watched three moths sail past us and around the corner before I remembered that on the screen of the music room window to the east there was a solitary female Promethean moth that day emerged from a cocoon sent me by Professor Raleigh I hurried to the room and found five male moths are clinging to the wild grape and sweet briar vines covering it I opened the adjoining window and picked up three of the handsome with my fingers placing them inside the screen then I returned to the veranda moths kept coming we began studying the conditions the female had emerged in the dining room on the west side of the cabin on account of the intense heat of the afternoon sun that side of the building had been tightly closed all day at four o'clock the moth was placed it was sheltered with vines how soon the first male found her I do not know there was quite a stiff evening breeze blowing from the west so that any odor from her would have carried on east we sat there and watched and counted six more moths every one of which came downwind from the west flying high above the treetops in fact and from the direction of a little tree filled plot called Studebaker's Woods some of them we could distinguish almost a block away and sailing around the eastern corner with the precision of hounds on a hot trail how they knew the almighty knows I do not pretend to but that there was odor distilled by that one female practically imperceptible to us she merely smelled like a moth yet of such strength as to penetrate screen vines and roses and reach her kind a block away against considerable breeze I never shall believe the fact is that moths smell like other moths of the same species they are very radius they undoubtedly attract each other in the same manner birds carry a bird like odor and snakes, frogs, fish, bees and all animals have a scent peculiar to themselves no dog mistakes the odor of a cat for that of another dog a cow does not follow the scent of horses to find other cattle no moth hunts a dragonfly a butterfly or in my experience even a moth of another species in its search for a mate I cannot explain as the result of acts we see them perform we credit some forms of life with much keener scent than others and many with having the power more highly developed than people the only standard by which we can determine the effect that the odor of one insect, bird or animal has upon another is by the effect it has upon us that a male moth can smell a female a block away against the wind when I can detect only a faint musky odor within a foot of her I do not credit that the purpose of moths is to meet, mate and deposit eggs that will produce more moths this is all of life with those that do not take food that they add the completing touch and most beautiful form of life to a few exquisite May and June nights is their extra good fortune not any part of the affair of living with moths that feed and live after reproduction mating and egg placing comes first in all cases the rule is much the same the moths emerge dry their wings in freedom the females being weighted with eggs seldom attempt to fly they remain where they are thrust out the egg placer from the last ring of the abdomen and wait by 10 o'clock the males in such numbers as to amaze a watcher find them and remain until almost morning broad and tenny slenderer abdomen and the claspers used in holding the female and mating smaller wings and more brilliant markings are the signs by which the male and female differ widely in markings and color among the other non-featers the difference is slight the male regalus has the longest most gracefully curved abdomen and the most prominent claspers of any moth I ever examined but the antennae are so delicate and closely pressed against the face most of the time as to be concealed into a specially examined I have noticed that among the moths bearing large outstanding antennae the claspers are longer and less prominent than in those having small inconspicuous head parts a fine pair of antennae carried forward as by a big fully developed sucropia are as ornamental to the moth as splendidly branching antlers are to the head of a deer the female now begins egg placing this requires time as one of these big night moths deposits from 350 to over 600 eggs these lie in embryonic state in the abdomen of the female at her maturity they ripen rapidly when they are ready to deposit she is forced to place them whether she has made it or not in case a mate has found her a small pouch near the end of her abdomen is filled with the fluid that touches each egg in passing and renders it fertile the eggs differ with species and are placed according to family characteristics they may be pure white pearl colored, gray, greenish or yellow there are round, flat and oblong eggs these are placed differently there is a lot of activity a moth in a natural location glues her eggs often one at a time on the under or upper side of leaves sometimes she dots several in a row or again makes a number of rows like a little beaded mat one authority I have consulted states that eggs are always laid by the female in a state of freedom upon the food plant which is most congenial to the larvae this has not always been the case in my experience I have been working on stone walls boards, fences, outbuildings and on the bark of dead trees and stumps as well as on living even on the ground this also has been the case with the women who wrote caterpillars and their moths the most invaluable work on the subject ever compiled a captive moth feels and resents her limitations I cannot force one to mate even in a large box I must free her in the conservatory in a room or put her on an outside window under these conditions one will place her eggs more nearly as in freedom but this makes them difficult to find and preserve placed in a box and forced by nature to deposit her eggs as a rule she will remain in one spot and heap them up until she is forced to move to make room for more one big female regalus of the last chapter of this book placed them a thimbleful at a time but the little caterpillars came rolling out in all directions when due in my experience they finish in four or five nights although I have read of moths having lived in place eggs for ten some species being said to have deposited over a thousand seven days is usually the limit of life for these big night moths with me they merely grow inactive and sluggish until the very last when almost invariably they are seized with a muscular attack in which they beat themselves to rags and fringes as if resisting the overcoming lethargy it is because of this that I have been forced to resort to the gasoline bottle a few times when I found it impossible to paint from the living moth but I do not put one to sleep unless I am compelled I have never been able to induce a female to mate after confinement had driven her to begin depositing her eggs not even under the most favorable conditions I could offer although others record that they have been so fortunate repeatedly I have experimented with males and females of different species but with no success I have never seen a big moth but have read of experiences with them sometimes the eggs have a smooth surface again they may be ridged or like hammered brass or silver the shells are very thin and break easily at one side a place can be detected where the fertilizing fluid enters the coming caterpillar begins to develop at once and emerges in from six to thirty days with the exception of a few eggs placed in the fall that produced during the following spring most of the egg period differs with species and somewhat with the same moths according to suitable or unfavorable placing and climatic conditions do not accept the experience of anyone if you have eggs you very much desire to be productive of the caterpillars of rare moths after six days take a peep every day if you would be on the safe side with many species the shells are transparent and for the last few days before emergence the growth of the little caterpillars can be watched through them or they break or eat a hole in their shells and emerge seeming much too large for the space they occupied family characteristics show at once many of them immediately turn and eat their shells as if starving others are more deliberate some grace around for a time as if exercising and then return and eat their shells others walk briskly away and do not dine on shell for the first meal usually all of them rest close 24 hours before beginning they eat enormously and grow so rapidly they soon become too large for their skins to hold them another instant so they pause and stop eating for a day or two while new skin forms then the old is discarded and eaten for a first meal with the exception of the face covering at the same time the outer skin is cast the intestinal lining is thrown off and practically a new caterpillar often bearing different markings begins to feed again these moths occur from four to six times at each it emerges larger, brighter often with other changes of color and eats more voraciously as it grows with me in handling caterpillars about which I am anxious their molting time is critical I lost many until I learned to clean their boxes thoroughly the instant they stopped eating and leave them alone until they exhibited hunger signs again they eat greedily of the leaves preferred by each species doing best when the folius is washed for them to drink as they would find dew and rain out of doors Professor Thompson of the chair of natural history of the University of Aberdeen makes this statement in his biology of the seasons another feature in the life of caterpillars is their enormous appetite some of them seem never to stop eating and a species of polyphemus is said to eat 86,000 times its own weight in a day I notice Dr. Thompson does not say that he knows this this is an utter impossibility the skin of no living creature will contain 86,000 times its own weight in a day I have raised enough caterpillars to know that if one ate three times its own weight in a day it would have performed a skin-stretching feat long after writing this but before the manuscript left my hands I found that the origin of this statement lies in a table compiled by Truvillo in which he estimates that a polyphemus caterpillar 10 days old weighs one half grain 10 times its original weight at 20 days 3 grains or 60 times its first weight and so on until at 56 days it weighs 207 grains or 4,140 times its first weight to this he adds one half ounce of water and concludes so the food taken by a single silk worm in 56 days equals in weight 86,000 times the primitive weight of the worm this is a far cry from eating 86,000 times its own weight in a day and upholds in part my contention in the first chapter that people attempting to write upon these subjects are not always rightly informed when the feeding period is finished in freedom the caterpillar, if hairless must be ready to evolve from its interior the principal part of the winter quarters characteristic of its species while changing to the moth form and in the case of the non-feeders sustenance for the lifetime of the moth also similar to the moth the caterpillar is made up of three parts head, thorax, and abdomen with the organs and appendages of each immediately after molting the head appears very large and seems much too heavy for the size of the body at the end of a feeding period and just previous to another molt the body has grown until the head is almost lost from sight and now it seems small and insignificant so the appearance of a caterpillar depends on whether you examine it before or after molting the head is made up of rings or segments the same as the body so closely set that it seems to be a flat round or pointed formation with discernible rings on the face before casting time the eyes are of so simple form that they are supposed only to distinguish light from darkness the complicated mouth is at the lower part of the head it carries a heavy pair of cutters with which the caterpillar bites off large pieces of leaf a first pair of grinders with which it macerates the food there is also the tube that connects with the silk glands and ends in the spinnerette through this tube a fluid is forced that by movements of the head the caterpillar attaches where it will and draws into fine threads that it once hardened in silk this organism is sufficiently developed for use in a newly emerged caterpillar for it can spin threads by which to drop from leaf to leaf or to guide it back to a starting point the thorax is covered by the first three rings behind the head the remainder of the caterpillar is abdominal and carries small pro legs with which to help it cling to tweaks and leaves and the heavy anal props that support the vent by using these and several of the pro legs immediately before them the caterpillar can cling and erect the front part of the body so that it can strike from side to side when disturbed in the case of caterpillars that have a horn as cilius or sets of them as regalus and often I have seen them drive away small birds while many people flee shrieking there are little tubes that carry air to the trachea as caterpillars have no lungs and can live with a very small amount of air the skin may be rough, granulated or soft and fine as silk and in almost every instance of exquisite color bluish green, greenish blue wonderful yellows and from pale to deep wine red many species having oblique touches with domino rings others are marked with small projections of bright colors from which tufts of hair or bristles may grow in some as EO these bristles are charged with an irritating acid that will sting for an hour after coming in contact with the skin but does no permanent injury on a few there are what seem to be small pockets of acid that can be ejected with a jerk and on some a sort of filament that is supposed to distill and disturb it is safe to presume that they are placed for defense but as in the case of moths I doubt their efficacy some lepidopterists have thought the sex of a moth could be regulated by the amount of food given the caterpillar but with my numerous other doubts I include this it is all of a piece with any attempt at sex regulation I regard it as morally certain that sex goes back to the ovary and that the egg produced is a form of defense that caterpillars recognize sex in each other basing the theory on the facts that in half a dozen instances I have found cocoons spun only a few inches apart one pair brought to me as interwoven two of these are shown in the following chapter in all cases a male and female emerged within a few minutes of each other and made it as soon as possible if a single pair of these cocoons ever had produced two of a kind it would give rise to doubts it seems to me to furnish conclusive evidence that the caterpillars knew what they were doing and spun in the same place for the purpose of appearing together at maturity usually near five weeks the full fed caterpillar rests a day empties the intestines and races around searching for a suitable place to locate winter quarters with burrowing caterpillars that winter in pupa cases soft earth or rotting wood is found and entered by working their way with the heads and closing it with the hind parts at the desired depth they push in all directions with such force that a hollow larger but shaped as a hen's egg is worked out usually this is six or more inches below the surface so compactly is the earth forced back that full rains winter's alternate freezing and thawing always a mellowing process and spring downpours do not break up the big ball often larger than a quart bowl that surrounds the case of the pupa it has been thought by some to be a spinning or an asset ejected by the caterpillar I never have heard of anyone else who has had my luck in lifting these earth balls intact opening and photographing them and their contents I have examined them repeatedly and carefully I can find not the slightest trace of spinning or adhesion other than by force with one of these balls lifted and divided we decided what happened underground by detaining a caterpillar on the surface and forcing it to transform before us when the time comes the pupa must evolve so the caterpillar lies on the earth gradually growing shorter the skin appearing dry and the horn strooping there is never a trace of spinning or asset ejected in the sand buckets when the change is completed there begins a violent twisting and squirming the caterpillar skin opens in a straight line just behind the head on the back and by working with the pointed abdomen the pupa case emerges I found a trace of it in an opened earth ball in the spring I suppose it disintegrates rapidly or what is more possible is eaten by small borers that swarm through the top 6 inches of the earth's crust the pupa is thickly coated with a sticky substance that seems to serve the double purpose of facilitating its exit from the caterpillar skin and to dry over it in a glossy waterproof coating at first the pupa is brownish green and flattened but as it dries it rapidly darkens in color concerning this stage of the evolution of a moth the doctors disagree the emergence I have watched repeatedly studied photographically and recorded in the tabulated records from which I wrote the following life histories at time to appear I believe the pupa bores its way with the sharp point of the abdomen at least I have seen Celius and Carolina Regulus and Imperialis coming through the surface abdomen tip first against the wing shields burst them away and leave the case at the thorax each moth I have ever seen emerge has been wet and the empty case damp inside I have poured three large drops of pinkish liquid the consistency of thin cream from the abdominal rings of a regulus case undoubtedly this liquid is ejected by the moth to enable it to break loose from and leave the case with its delicate down intact the furry scales of its covering and its violent struggle with dry down would disfigure the moth among Socropia and its Addicine cousins also Luna, Polyphemus and all other spinners the process is practically the same save that it is much more elaborate most of all with Socropia that spins the largest cocoon I have ever seen and it varies its work more than any of the others lengthwise of a slender twig it spins a long slim cocoon on a board or wall and it has big baggy quarters of exquisite reddish tan colors that do not fade as do those exposed to the weather the typical cocoon of the species is that spun on a fence or outbuilding not the slender work on the alders or the elaborate quarters of the bridge on a board the process is to cover the space required with a fine spinning that glues firmly to the wood then the worker takes a firm grip with the anal props and lateral feet and begins drawing out long threads on one side across the bottom and back to the top again where each thread is cut and another begun as long as the caterpillar can be seen through its work it remains in the same position and throws the head back and forth and around to carry the threads I never thought of counting these movements while watching a working spinner but someone who has estimates that Polyphemus that spins a cocoon not one fourth the size of Socropia and securely attached all around the edges it is pushed out in the middle and gummed all over the inside with a liquid glue that oozes through coalesces and hardens in a waterproof covering then a big nest of crinkly silk threads averaging from three to four inches in length are spun running from the top down one side up the other and the cut ends drawn closely together one writer states that this silk has no commercial value while Packard thinks it has next comes the inner case for this the caterpillar loosens its hold and completely surrounds itself with a small case of compact work this in turn is saturated with the glue and forms in a thick tough case rough on the outside the top not so solidly spun as the other walls inside dark brown and worn so smooth it seems as if oiled from the turning of the caterpillar in this little chamber close the length and circumference of an average size woman's and forms to the pupa stage crowding its cast skin in a wad at the bottom at the time for emergence the moth burst the pupa case which is extremely thin and papery compared with the cases of burrowing species we know by the wet moth that liquid is ejected although we cannot see the wet spot on the top of the inner case as we can with polyphemus that does not spin the loose outer case and silk nest from here on the moths emerge some have rough projections on the top of the head and others little soul-like arrangements at the bases of the wings in whatever manner they free themselves all of them are wet when they leave their quarters sometimes the gathered silk ends comb sufficient down from an emerging sucropia to leave a terracotta rim around the opening from which it came but I never saw one loose enough at this time to disfigure it on very rare occasions a deformed moth appears and it never developed this is caused by the moth sustaining an injury to the wing in emergence if the membrane is slightly punctured the liquid forced into the wing for its development escapes and there is no enlargement also in rare instances a moth is unable to escape at all and is lost if it is not assisted but this is precarious business and should not be attempted unless you are positive the moth will die if you do not interfere the struggle it takes to emerge and quickens its circulation and develops its strength for the affairs of life afterward if the feet have a steady pull to drag forth the body they will be strong enough to bear its weight while the wings dry and develop all lepidopterists mention the wet condition of the moths when they emerge some explain that an acid is ejected to soften the pupa case so that the moth can cut its way out others go a step farther and state that the acid is from the mouth and where it comes from I know of no part of the thorax provided with a receptacle for the amount of liquid used to flood a case dampen a moth and leave several drops in the shell as soon as the moth can find a suitable place to cling after it is out it hangs by the feet and dries the wings and down long before it is dry if you try to move a moth or cause disturbance it will eject several copious jets of a spray from the abdomen in the abandoned case if protected from the lightest touch it will do the same it appeals to me that this liquid is abdominal partly thrown off to assist the moth in emergence something very like the bath of birth which accompanies and facilitates human entrance into the world it helps the struggling moth in separating from the case wets the down so that it will pass the small opening reduces the large abdomen so that it will escape the exit for male or female the increase in size is so rapid that neither could be returned to their cases five minutes after they have left them it is generally supposed that the spray thrown by a developing moth is for the purpose of attracting others of its kind I have my doubts with moths that have been sheltered and not even touched by a breath of wind this spray is thrown very frequently before the moth is entirely dry long before it is able to fly and before the ovipositor there is very little odor to the spray and what there is would be dissipated hours before night and time for the moths to fly and seek mates I do not think that the spray thrown so soon after escape from cocoon or case is to attract the sexes any farther than that much of it in one place on something that it would saturate might leave a general moth-y odor some Lepidopterists think this spray means of defense if this is true I fail to see why it should be thrown when there is nothing disturbing the moth use leaves for their outer foundation some appear as if snugly rolled in a leaf and hanging from a twig but examination will prove that the stem is silk covered to hold the case when the leaf loosens this is the rule with all Promethea cocoons I have ever seen Polyphemus selects a cluster of leaves very frequently thorn and weaves its cocoon against three drawing them together and spinning a support the length of the stems so that when the leaf is ready to fall the cocoon is safely anchored and the winter winds have beaten the edges from the leaves the cocoon appears as if it were brown having three ribs with veins running from them and of triangular shape angular Phara spins against the leaves but provides no support and so drops to the ground Luna spins a comparatively thin white case among the leaves under the shelter of logs and stumps EO spins so slightly in confinement that the pupa case and cast skin show through I never have found a pupa out of doors but this is a ground caterpillar sometimes the caterpillar has been stung and had an egg placed in its skin by a parasite before pupation in such case the pupa is destroyed by the developing fly throughout one winter I was puzzled by the light weight of what appeared to be a good polyphemus cocoon and at time for emergence amazed by the tearing and scratching inside the cocoon until what I think was an Ophian fly appeared it was honey yellow it was the only long body the abdomen of which was curved and the segments set together so as to appear notched the wings were transparent and the insect it seems is especially designed to attack polyphemus caterpillars and help check a progress that otherwise might become devastating among the moths that do not feed the year of their evolution is divided into about seven days for the life of the moth from 15 to 30 for the eggs from five to six weeks for the caterpillar and the remainder of the time the rule differs with feeding moths only in that after mating and egg placing they take food and live several months often until quite heavy frost have fallen one could admire to fill this extent the complicated organism wondrous coloring and miraculous life processes in the evolution of a moth but that is all their faces express nothing their attitudes tell no story there is the marvelous instinct through which the males locate the face of any creature it must develop in acts there is no part of their lives that makes such pictures of mother love as birds and animals afford the male finds a mate and disappears the female places her eggs and goes out before her caterpillars break their shells the caterpillar transforms to the moth without its consent the matter in one of building the other the entire process is utterly devoid of sentiment attachment or volition on the part of the creatures involved in building suns, moons and planets in their courses they are the most fragile and beautiful result of natural law with which I am acquainted end of chapter 2 chapter 3 of moths of the limberlost this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org moths of the Limberlost by Jean Stratton Porter the robin moth when only a little child wandering alone among the fruits and flowers of our country garden on a dead peach limb beside the fence I found it my first sucropia I was the friend of every bird, flower and butterfly I carried crumbs to the warblers in the sweetbriar was lifted for surreptitious peeps at the hummingbird nesting in the honeysuckle sat within a few feet of the robin there were two febe that had built for years under the roof of the corn bin and fed young blackbirds in the hemlock with worms gathered from the cabbages I knew how to insinuate myself into the private life of each bird that homed on our farm and they were many for we valiantly battled for their protection with every kind of intruder there were wrens in the knotholes chippies in the fences thrushes in the brush heaps bluebirds in the hollow apple trees cardinals in the bushes larks in the wheat bobble-links in the clover killed deers beside the creeks swallows in the chimneys and martins under the barn eaves my love encompassed all feathered and furred creatures every day visits were paid flowers I cared for most I had been taught not to break the garden blooms and if a very few of the wild ones were taken I gathered them carefully and explained to the plants that I wanted them for my mother because she was so ill she could not come to them anymore my love for the butterflies took on the form of adoration there was not a delicate gaudy winged creature of day that did not make so strong an appeal to my heart as to be almost painful it seemed to me that the most exquisite thoughts of God for our pleasure were materialized in their beauty my soul always craved color and more brilliancy could be found on one butterfly wing than on many flower faces I liked to slip along the path of my mother I like to slip along the bloom-boarded walks of that garden and stand spellbound watching a black velvet butterfly with trailed wings painted in white, red and green as it clamored over a clump of sweet Williams and indeed the flowers appeared plain compared with it butterflies have changed their habits since then they fly so high they are all among the treetops now they used to flit around the cinnamon pinks lark's bar, ragged robins and tiger lilies within easy reach of little fingers every day I called them flying flowers and it was a pretty conceit for they really were more delicate in texture and brighter in coloring than the garden blooms having been taught that God created the heavens, earth and all things therein I understood it to mean a literal creation of each separate thing and creature as when my father cut down a tree and hewed it into a beam I would spend hours sitting so immovably among the flowers of our garden that the butterflies would mistake me for a plant and a light on my head in hands I strove to conceive the greatness of a being who could devise and color all those different butterfly wings I would try to decide whether he created the birds, flowers or butterflies first ultimately coming to the conclusion that he put his most exquisite material into the butterflies and then did the best he could with what remained on the birds and flowers in my home there was a cellar window on the south covered with wire screening that was my individual property father placed a box beneath it that would reach the sill easily and there were very few butterflies or insects common to eastern North America a specimen of which had not spent some days on that screen feasted on leaves and flowers drunk from saucers of sweetened water been admired and studied in my nudist detail and then set free to enjoy life as before with Whitman I never was possessed with a mania for killing things I had no idea of what families they were and I supplied my own names the monarch was the brown velvet the viceroy was his cousin the argonis was the silver spotted and the papillio Ajax was the ribbon butterfly in my category there was some thought of naming Ajax Dolly Varden but on close inspection it seemed most resemble the gaily striped ribbons my sisters wore I was far afield as to names but in later years with only a glance at any specimen I could say oh yes I always have known that it has buff colored legs clubbed antennae with buff tips polished brown velvet with the scalloped margins a deep bend of buff lightly traced with black bordering them and a pronounced point close to the apex of the front pair when it comes to books all they had to teach me were the names I had captured and studied butterflies big, little, and with every conceivable variety of marking until it was seldom one was found whose least peculiarity was not familiar to me as my own face but what could this be it clung to the rough bark a margin with bands made of shades of gray, tan, and black banded with a broad stripe of red terracotta color with an inside margin of white widest on the back pair both pairs of wings were decorated with half moons of white outlined in black and strongly flushed with terracotta the front pair near the outer margin had oval markings of blue-black shaded with gray outlined with half circles of white and secondary circles of black when the wings were raised I could see a face of terracotta a broad band of white across the forehead and an abdomen of terracotta banded with snowy white above and spotted with white beneath its legs were hairy and the antennae antlered like small branching ferns of course I thought it was a butterfly and for a time was too filled with wonder to move then creeping close the next time the wings were raised above the body with the nervous touch of a robust child I captured it I was ten miles from home but I had spent all my life until the last year on that farm and I knew and loved every foot of it to leave it for a city home and the confinement of school almost had broken my heart but it really was time for me to be having some formal education it had been the greatest possible treat to be allowed to return to the country for a week but now my one idea was to go home with my treasure none of my people had seen a site like it if they had they would have told me borrowing a two gallon stone jar from the tenant's wife I searched the garden for flowers sufficiently rare for lining nothing so pleased me as some gorgeous deep red peony blooms never having been allowed to break the flowers when that was my mother's home I did not think of doing it because she was not there to know I knelt and gathered all the fallen petals that were fresh and then spreading my apron on the ground jarred the plant not harder than a light windmite and all that fell in this manner it seemed right to take all the petals and the gray velvet of my prize made a picture over which I stood trembling in delight the moth was promptly christened the half Luna because my father had taught me that Luna was the moon and the half moons on the wings were its most prominent markings the tenant's wife wanted me to put it in a paste board box but I stubbornly insisted on having the jar why I do not know but I suppose it was because my father's word was gospel to me and he had said that the best place and I must have thought the jar the nearest equivalent to the cellar the half Luna did not mind in the least but went on lazily opening and closing its wings yet making no attempt to fly if I had known what it was or anything of its condition I would have understood that it had emerged from the cocoon that morning and never had flown but was establishing circulation preparatory to taking wing being only a small very ignorant girl the greatest thing I knew for sure when I was on it over the top of the jar I stationed myself on the horse block at the front gate every passing team was hailed with lifted hand just as I had seen my father do and in as perfect an imitation of his voice as a scared little girl making her first venture alone in the big world could muster I asked which way friend for several long hot hours people went to every point of the compass but at last a bony young farmer with a fat wife and a fatter baby in a big wagon with quaking heart I handed up my jar and climbed in covering all those ten miles in the June sunshine on a board later across the wagon bed tightly clasping the two gallon jar in my aching arms the farmer's wife was quite concerned about me she asked if I had butter and I said yes the kind that flies I slipped the bonnet enough to let them peep she did not seem to think much of it but the farmer laughed until his tan face was read as an Indians and offered to set her foot on it so that it would not jounce much but I did not propose to risk it jouncing at all and clung to it persistently then she offered to tie her apron over the top of the jar if I would put my bonnet on my head but I was afraid to attempt the exchange for fear my butterfly would try to escape and I might crush it a thing I almost never had allowed to happen the farmer's wife stuck her elbow into his ribs and said the farmer answered I never saw nothing like it before then she said I didn't meet in the jar then they both laughed I thought they were amused at me but I had no intention of risking an injury to my half Luna for there had been one black day on which I had had such a terrible experience that it entailed a lifetime of caution I had captured what I afterward learned was an esterias that seemed slightly different from any previous specimen and a yellow swallowtail my first papillio ternus the yellow one was the largest most beautiful butterfly I had ever seen I was carrying them one between each thumb and forefinger and running with all possible speed to reach the screen before my touch would soil the down on their exquisite wings I stumbled and fell so suddenly there was no time to release them the black one sailed away with a ragged wing and the yellow was crushed into a shapeless mass in my hand I was accustomed to falling off fences from trees and into the creek and because my mother was an invalid I had learned to doctor my own bruises and uncomplainingly go my way my reputation was out of a very brave little girl but when I opened my hand and saw that broken butterfly and my down painted fingers I was never more afraid in my life I screamed aloud in panic and ran for my mother with all my might heart broken I could not control my voice to explain as I threw myself on her couch and before I knew what they were doing my mother clasped me in her arms and rocked me on her breast there there my poor child she said I know it hurts dreadfully and to the cook she commanded pour on the camphor quickly she is half killed or she would never come to me like this I found my voice camphor won't do any good I wailed it was the most beautiful butterfly and I've broken it all to pieces it must have taken God hours studying how to make it different and I know he will never forgive me I began sobbing worse than ever the cook on her knees before me sat on her heels suddenly great heavens she's screeching about breaking a butterfly and not her poor foot at all then I looked down and discovered that I had stubbed my toe and falling and had left a bloody trail behind me of course I am I sobbed indignantly couldn't I wash off a little blood in the creek and tie up my toe with a dock leaf and some grass I've killed the most beautiful butterfly and I know I won't be forgiven I opened my tightly clenched hand and showed it to prove my words the sight was so terrible to me that I jerked my foot from the cook and thrust my hand into the water screaming wash it wash it wash the velvet from my hand oh make it white again before the cook bathed and bandaged my foot she washed and dried my hand and my mother whispered God knows you never meant to do it and he is sorry as mother is so my mother and the cook comforted me the remainder scattered suddenly it was years before I knew why and I was a Shakespearean student before I caught the point of their frequently calling me little lady Macbeth after such an experience it was not probable that I would risk crushing a butterfly to tie a bonnet on my head it probably would be down my back half the time anyway it usually was in the city I heard the farmer's wife tell him that he must take me to my home he said he would not do any such thing but she said he must she explained that she knew me and it would not be decent to put me down where they were going and leave me to walk home and carry that heavy jar so the farmer took me to our gate I thanked him as politely as I knew how and kissed his wife and the fat baby in payment for their kindness for I was very grateful I was so tired that I had no opportunity I had expected my family to be delighted over my treasure but they exhibited an astonishing indifference and were far more concerned over the state of my blistered face I would not hear putting my half-luna on the basement screen as they suggested but enthroned it in state on the best lace curtains at a parlor window covered the sill with leaves and flowers and went to bed happy the following morning my sister said a curtain was ruined it seemed to be that something was a nuisance I could not tell whether it was I or the half-luna on coming to the parlor a little later laden with leaves and flowers my treasure was gone the cook was sure it had flown from the door over someone's head and she said very tersely that it was a burning shame and if such carelessness as that ever occurred again she would quit her job such is the confidence of a child that I accepted my loss as an inevitable accident and tried to be brave to comfort her but my heart was almost broken of course they freed my moth they never would have dared but that the little mother's couch stood all day empty now and her chair unused beside it my disappointment was so deep and far-reaching it made me ill then they scolded me and said I had half killed myself carrying that heavy jar in the hot sunshine although the pain from which I suffered was neither in my arms nor sunburned face so I lost my first acropia and from that day until a woman grown and this material secured in all my fieldwork among the birds flowers and animals I never had seen another they had taunted me in museums and been my envy in private collections but find one I could not when in my fieldwork among the birds so many moths of other families almost had thrust themselves upon me that I began a collection of reproductions of them I found little difficulty in securing almost anything else I could picture Sphinx moths in any position I chose a friend carried to me a beautiful tan-colored polyphemus with transparent moons like Isenglass set in its wings of softest velvet down and as for butterflies it was not necessary to go a field for them they came to me I could pick a papillio Ajax that some of my friends were years in securing from the pinks in my garden a pair of antipas spent a night and waited to be pictured in the morning among the leaves of my passion vine painted beauties swayed along my flowered walks in September a viceroy reigned in state on every chrysanthemum and a monarch was enthroned on every sunbeam no luck was too good for me no butterfly or moth too rare except for ever and always the coveted sacropia and by this time I had learned to my disgust that it was one of the commonest of all then one summer late in June a small boy having an earnest eager little face came to me tugging a large box he said he had something for me he said they called it a butterfly but he was sure it never was he was eminently correct he had a splendid big sacropia I was delighted of course to have found one myself would have filled my cup to overflowing but to secure a perfect living specimen was good enough for the first time my childish loss seemed in a measure compensated then I could only study a moth to my satisfaction and set it free now I could make reproduction so perfect that every antler of its antennae could be counted with a naked eye giving back its liberty I asked him whether he wanted money or a picture of it and as I expected he said money so he was paid an hour later he came back and said he wanted the picture I'm being questioned as to his change of heart he said mama told him to say he wanted the picture and she would give him the money my sympathy was with her I wanted the studies I intended to make a sacropia myself and I wanted them very badly I opened the box to examine the moth and found it so numb with the cold overnight and so worn and helpless that it could not cling to a leaf or twig I tried repeatedly and fearing that it had been subjected to rough treatment and soon would be lifeless for these moths live only a short time I hastily set up a camera focusing on a branch then I tried posing my specimen until the third time it fell but the fourth it clung and crept down a twig settling at last in a position that far surpassed any posing that I could do and yet it made a complication it had gone so far that it might be off the plate and from focus it seemed so stupid and helpless that I decided to risk a peep at the glass and hastily removing the plate and changing the shutter a slight but most essential alteration was made everything replaced and the bulb caught up there was only a breath of sound as I turned and then I stood horrified for my sacropia was sailing over a large elm tree in a corner of the orchard and for a block my gaze followed its skyward flying like a bird before it vanished in the distance so quickly had it recovered in fresh air and sunshine I have undertaken to describe some very difficult things but I would not attempt to portray my feelings and three days later there was no change it was in the height of my season of field work and I had several extremely interesting series of bird studies on hand and many miscellaneous subjects in those days some pictures were secure that I then thought and yet feel will live but nothing mattered to me there was a standing joke among my friends that I never would be satisfied with my field work until I had made a study of a ha ha bird but I doubt if even that specimen would have lifted the gloom of those days everything was a drag and frequently I would think over it all in detail and roundly bless myself for taking a prize so rare to me at least into the open the third day stands lured in my memory it was the hottest most difficult day of all my years of experience afield the temperature ranged from 104 to 108 in the village and in quarries open to the east flat fields and steaming swamps it certainly could have been no cooler with set cameras I was working for a shot at a hawk that was feeding on all the small birds and rabbits in the vicinity of its nest I also wanted a number of studies to fill a commission that was pressing me subjects for several pictures had been found and exposures made on them when the weather was so hot the temperature would curl like a horseshoe if not laid on a case and held flat by a camera while I worked perspiration dried and the landscape took on a somber black velvet hue with a liberal sprinkling of gold stars I sank into a stupor going home and an old farmer aroused me and disentangled my horse from a thicket of wild briars into which it had strayed he said most emphatically that if I did not know enough to remain indoors in weather like that my friend should appoint me a guardian I reached the village more worn in body and spirit than I ever had been I felt that I could not endure another degree of heat on the back of my head and I was much discouraged concerning my work why not drop it all and go where there were cool forests and breezes sighing perhaps my studies were not half so good as I thought perhaps people would not care for them for that matter perhaps the editors and publishers would never give the public an opportunity to see my work at all I dragged a heavy load up the steps I was paralyzed on the top step where I could not reach the cabin door without seeing it newly emerged and slowly exercising a pair of big wings with every gaudy marking fresh with new life was the finest sacropia I ever had seen anywhere recovering myself with a start I had it under my net that had waited 20 years to cover it inside the door I dropped the net and the moth crept on my fingers what luck what extra golden luck I landed there to encourage me to keep on picturing the beauties and wonders of his creations for people who could not go afield to see for themselves and to teach those who could to protect helpless harmless things for their use in beauty I walked down the hall and vaguely scanned the solid rows of books and specimens lining the library walls I scarcely realized the thought that was in my mind but what I was looking for was not there the dining room then with paneled walls and curtains of tapestry it was not there in the old music room I went then a realizing sense came to me it was Brussels lace for which I was searching on the most delicate snowiest place possible on the finest curtain there I placed my sacropia and then stepped back and gazed at it with a sort of touch it over my dead body sentiment in my heart an effort was required to arouse myself to realize that I was not dreaming to search the fields and woods for 20 years and then find the specimen I had sought awaiting me at my own door well might have been a dream but that the sacropia clinging to the meshes of the lace slowly opening and closing its wings to strengthen them for flight could be nothing but a delightful reality a few days later in the valley of the wood robin while searching for its nest I found a large cocoon it was above my head but afterward I secured it by means of a ladder and carried it home shortly there emerged a yet larger sacropia and luck seemed with me I could find them everywhere through June in the gardens later their eggs in the tiny caterpillars that hatch from them during the summer I found these caterpillars in different stages of growth until fall when after their last malt and casting of skin they reached the final period of feeding some were over four inches in length a beautiful shade of greenish blue with red and yellow warty projections turbocles according to scientific works it is easy to find the cocoons these caterpillars spin because they are the largest woven possible spots they can be found in orchards high on branches and on water sprouts at the base of trees frequently they are spun on swamp willows box elder, maple or wild cherry Mr. Black once found for me the largest cocoon I ever have seen a pale tan color with silvery lights woven against the inside of a hollow log perhaps the most beautiful of all a dull red was found under the flooring of an old bridge crossing a stream in the heart of the swamp by a girl not unknown to fiction she brought it to me in a deserted orchard close to Wabash Raymond once found a pair of empty cocoons at the foot of a big apple tree fastened to the same twigs and within two inches of each other but the most wonderful thing of all occurred when Wallace Hardison a faithful friend to my work sawed a board from the roof of his chicken house and carried to me twin sacropia cocoons spun so closely together they were touching and slightly interwoven by the closest examination the one on the right was a trifle fuller in the body wider at the top a shade lighter in color and the inner case seemed heavier all winter those cocoons occupied the place of state in my collection every few days I tried them to see if they gave the solid thumb indicating healthy pupae and listened to learn if they were moving by May they were under constant surveillance on the fourteenth I was called from home a few hours to attend the funeral of a friend and the other cocoon had emerged on the eleventh I hurried home near noon only to find that I was late for one was out in the top of the other cocoon heaving with the movements of the second the moth that had escaped was a male it clung to the side of the board wings limp its abdomen damp the opening from which it came was so covered with terracotta colored down that I thought at first it must have disfigured itself but full development proved it could spare that much and yet appear all right on the other side of the board and tacked it against the south side of the cabin where I made reproductions of the cocoons the nail had been left and now it suggested the same place a light stroke on the head of the nail covered with cloth to prevent jarring fastened the board on a log never in my life did I hurry as on that day and I called my entire family into service the deacons stood at one elbow Molly Cotton at the other and the Gardner in the rear there was not a second to be lost in the bright sunshine those moths would emerge and develop with amazing rapidity Molly Cotton held an umbrella over them to prevent this as much as possible the deacon handed plate holders and Brenner ran errands working as fast as I could make my fingers fly and setting up the camera and getting a focus the second moth's head was out its front feet struggling to pull up the body and its antennae beginning to lift when I was ready for the first snap at half past eleven by the time I inserted the slide the first moth to appear had climbed up the board a few steps and the second was halfway out its antennae were nearly horizontal now and from its position I decided that the wings as they lay in the pupa case were folded neither to the back nor to the front but pressed against the body in a lengthwise crumpled mass the heavy front rib or costa on top again I changed plates with all speed by the time I was ready for the third snap the male had reached the top of the board its wings opened for the first time and I was ready for trembling motion the second one had emerged and was running into the first so I held my finger in the line of its advance and when it climbed on I lowered it to the edge of the board beside the cocoons it immediately clung to the wood a big percy abdomen and smaller antennae that now turned forward in position proved this a female the exposure was made not ten seconds after she cleared the case and with her back to the lens so the position and condition of the wings and antennae on emergence nearly as possible I changed the plates again the time that elapsed could not have been over half a minute the male was trying to creep up the wall and the increase in the length and expansion of the female's wings could be seen the colors on both were exquisite but they grew a trifle less brilliant as the moss became dry again I turned to the business of plate changing the heat was intense and perspiration was streaming from my face I called to Molly Cotton to shield the moss while I made the chains Drat the moss cried the deacon being an obedient girl she shifted the umbrella and by the time I was ready for business the male was on the logs and traveling up the side of the cabin the female was climbing toward the logs also so that a side view showed her wings already beginning to lift above her back I had only five snapshot plates in my holders so I was compelled to stop it was as well for surely the record was complete and I was almost prostrate with excitement and heat on the right was split down the left side and turned back to show the bed of spun silk of exquisite color that covers the inner case some say this silk has no commercial value as it is cut in lengths reaching from the top around the inner case and back to the top again others think it can be used the one on the left was opened down the front of the outer case the silk parted and the heavy inner case cut from top to bottom to show the smooth interior wall the thin pupa case burst by the exit of the moth at the bottom the pair mated that same night and the female began laying eggs by noon the following day she dotted them in lines over the inside of her box and on leaves placed in it and at times piled them up in a heap instead of placing them as do these moths and freedom having taken a picture of a full grown caterpillar of this moth brought to me by Mr. Andrew Idlewine I now had a complete sucropia history eggs, full grown caterpillars, twin cocoons and the story of the emergence of the moths in them I do not suppose Mr. Hardison thought he was doing anything unusual when he brought me those cocoons yet by bringing them he made it possible for me to secure this series of twin sucropia moths male and female a thing never before recorded by a lepidopterist or photographer so far as I can learn the sucropia is a moth whose acquaintance nature loving city people can cultivate in December of 1906 on a tree maple I think four cocoons of this moth and on the next tree save one another then I began watching and in the coming days I counted them by the hundred through the city several bushels of these cocoons could have been clipped in Indianapolis alone and there is no reason why any other city that has maple, elm, catalpa and other shade trees would not have as many so that anyone who would like can find them easily sucropia cocoons bewilder a beginner by their difference in shape you cannot determine the sex of the moth in the case of the twins the cocoon of the female was the larger but I have known male and female alike to emerge from large or small you are fairly sure of selecting a pair if you depend upon weight the females are heavier than the males because they emerge with quantities of eggs ready to deposit as soon as they have made it if anyone wants to winter a pair of moths they are reasonably sure of doing so by selecting the heaviest and lightest cocoons they can find in the selection of cocoons hold them to the ear and with a quick motion reverse them and for end if there is a dull solid thump the moth is alive and will emerge alright if this thump is lacking and there is a rattle like a small seed shaking in a dry pod it means that the caterpillar has gone into the cocoon with one of the tiny parasites that infest these worms clinging to it and the pupa has been eaten by the parasite in fall and late summer and when weather be in they fade and do not show the exquisite shadings of silk of those newly spun when fresh the colors range from almost white through lightest tans and browns to a genuine red and there is a silvery effect that is lovely on some of the large baggy ones hidden under bridges out of doors the moths emerge in middle May or June but they are earlier in the heat of a house they are the largest of any species and exquisitely colored on the upper side of the wings they differ greatly in size most males having an average wing sweep of five inches and a female that emerged in my conservatory from a cocoon that I wintered with particular care had a spread of seven inches the widest of which I have heard six and three quarters is a large female the moth unappearing seems all head and abdomen the wings hanging limp and wet from the shoulders it at once creeps around until a place where it can hang with the wings down is found a moving motion of the body I imagine this is to start circulation to exercise parts and force blood into the wings they begin to expand to dry to take on a color with amazing rapidity and as soon as they are full size and crisp the moths commences raising and lowering them slowly as in flight if a male he emerges near ten in the forenoon and flies at dusk in search of a mate as the females are very heavy with eggs they usually remain where they are after mating they begin almost at once to deposit their eggs and do not take flight until they have finished the eggs are round having a flat top that becomes slightly depressed as they dry they are of pearl color with a touch of brown changing to grayish as the tiny caterpillars develop their outline can be traced through the shell on which they make their first meal when they emerge female socropias average about 350 eggs each they sometimes place singly and again string and rows or in captivity pile and heaps in freedom they deposit the eggs mostly on leaves sometimes the under sometimes the upper sides or dot them on bark boards or walls the percentage of loss of eggs and the young is large for they are nowhere numerous enough to become a pest as they certainly would if 300 caterpillars survived to each female moth the young feed on apple, willow, maple, box elder or wild cherry leaves are feeding periods and malts during which they rest for a few days cast the skin in intestinal lining and then feed for another period after the females have finished depositing their eggs they cling to branches, vines or walls for a few days fly aimlessly at night and then pass out without ever having taken food socropia has several cousins Promethea, Angulifera, Gloverae and Cynthia that vary slightly in marking and more in color the male of Promethea is the darkest moth of the limberlost the male of Angulifera is a brownish gray the female reddish with warm tan colors on her wing borders she is very beautiful the markings on the wings of both are not half moon shaped as Socropia and Gloverae but are oblong and largest at the point next to apex of the wing Gloverae could not be told from Socropia in half tone reproduction by any save a scientist but in color they are vastly different and more beautiful the only living Gloverae I ever secured was almost done with life and she was so badly battered I could not think of making a picture of her the wings are a lovely red wine color with warm tan borders and the crescents are white with a line of tan and then of black the abdomen is white striped with wine and black Cynthia has pale olive green shadings on both male and female these are imported moths in the hope that they would prove valuable in silk culture they occur mostly where the elanthus grows my heart goes out to Socropia because it is such a noble bird-like big fellow and since it has decided to be rare with me no longer all that is necessary is to pick it up either in caterpillar, cocoon, or moth at any season of the year and almost any location the Socropia moth resembles the robin among birds not alone because he is gray with red markings but also he haunts localities the robin is the bird of the eaves the back door the yard and the orchard Socropia is the moth my doorstep is not the only one they grace my friends have found them in like places Socropia cocoons are attached to fences chicken coops barns, houses, and all through the orchards of old country places so that their emergence at bloom time adds to May and June one more beauty and frequently I speak of them as the robin moth Socropia there came to me the most delightful experience of my life one perfect night during the middle of May all the world white with tree bloom touched to radiance with brilliant moonlight intoxicating with countless blending perfumes I placed a female Socropia on the screen of my sleeping room door and retired the lot on which the cabin stands is sloping so that although the front foundations are low my door is at least five feet above the ground and opens on a circular porch from which steps lead down between two apple trees at that time she did in bloom past midnight I was awakened by soft touches on the screen faint pullings at the wire I went to the door and found the porch orchard and night sky alive with Socropia's holding high carnival I had not supposed there were so many in all this world from every direction they came floating like birds down the moonbeams I carefully removed the female from the door to a window close beside I found out I was permeated with the odor of the moth as I advanced to the top step that lay even with the middle branches of the apple trees the exquisite big creatures came swarming around me I could feel them on my hair, my shoulders and see them settling on my gown and outstretched hands far as I could penetrate the night sky more were coming they settled on the bloom-laden branches on the porch pillars on me indiscriminately and five clinging to my gown this experience I am sure suggested Mrs. Comstock's moth-hunting in the limberloss then I went back to the veranda and reveled with the moss until dawn drove them to shelter one magnificent specimen bird-like above all the others I followed across the orchard and yard to a grape-arbor where I picked him from the underside of a leaf after he had settled for the coming day repeatedly I counted close to a hundred and then they would so confuse me by flight I could not be sure I was not numbering the same one twice with eight males some of them fine large moths one superb from which to choose my female mated with an insistent frowsy little scrub lacking two feet and having torn and ragged wings I needed no sure proof that she had very dim vision end of chapter three chapter four of moths of the limberloss this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org moths of the limberloss by Gene Stratton Porter chapter four the yellow emperor equals imperialis several years ago Mr. A. Eisen a German of Coldwater, Michigan who devotes his leisure to collecting moths gave me as pin specimens a pair of equals imperialis and their full life history any intimate friend of mine this is my favorite color with shades of lavender running into purple second choice when I found a yellow moth liberally decorated with lavender the combination was irresistible Mr. Eisen said the mounted specimens were faded but the living moths were beautiful beyond description naturally I coveted life I was very particular to secure the history of the caterpillars and their favorite foods I learned from Mr. Eisen that they were all of the same shape and habit but some of them might be green and black face lines the body covers sparsely with long hairs or they might be brown with markings of darker brown and black with white hairs but they would be at least three inches long when full grown and would have a queer habit of rearing and drawing leaves to their mouths when feeding I was told I would find them in August on leaves of spruce, pine, cherry birch, alder, sycamore, elm or maple that they pupated in the ground and the moths were common especially around lights in city parks and street crossings coming from a drive one rare June evening I found Mr. William Pettis a shooter of oil wells whom I frequently met while at my work sitting on the veranda in an animated business discussion with the deacon I brought you a pair of big moths that I found this morning on some bushes beside the road said Mr. Pettis I went to give Mr. Porter a peep to see if he thought you'd want them and they both got away he was quicker than I had an elm not far away did you know them I asked the deacon no he answered you have none of the kind they are big as birds and a beautiful yellow yellow no doubt I was unduly emphatic yellow didn't you know better than to open a box with moths in it outdoors at night it was my fault interposed Mr. Pettis he told me not to open the box but I had shown them a dozen times today and they never moved so was I sorry enough to have cried but I tried my best to conceal it anyway it might be EO and I had that I'm going inside to examine the moth I found a large female equals imperialis with not a scale of down misplaced even by gaslight I could see the yellow of the living moth was a warm canary color and the lavender of the mountain specimen closer heliotrope on the living for there were pinkish tints that had faded from the pinned moth eggs and made no attempt to fly so I closed the box and left her until the lights were out and then removed the lid every opening was tightly screened and as she had mated I did not think she would fly I hoped in the freedom of the cabin she would not break her wings and ruin herself for a study there was much comfort in the thought that I could secure her likeness her eggs would be fertile and I could raise a brood the coming season in which would be both male and female for these are of the moths that do not eat and live only a few days after depositing their eggs so I went out and explained to Mr. Pettis what efforts I had made to secure the yellow moth comforted him for allowing the male to escape by telling him I could raise all I wanted from the eggs of the female showed him my entire collection and sent him from the cabin such a friend to my work that it was he who brought me an oil coated lark a few days later on rising early the next morning the moth had deposited some eggs on the dining room floor before the conservatory doors more on the heavy tapestry that covered them and she was clinging to a velvet curtain at a library window liberally dotting it with eggs almost as yellow as her body I turned a tumbler over those on the floor pinned folds in the curtains and as soon as the light was good set up a camera and focused on a suitable location she climbed on my finger when it was held before her and was carried with no effort to fly to the place I had selected though Molly Cotton walked close with a spread net ready for the slightest impulse toward movement but female moths seldom fly until they had finished egg depositing and this one was transferred with no trouble to the spot in which I had focused on the back wall of the cabin among some wild roses she was placed on a log and immediately raised her wings and started for the shade of the vines the picture made of her as she walked is beautiful and in several studies she was returned to the library curtain where she resumed egg placing these were not counted but there were at least 300 at a rough guess I had thought her lovely in gaslight but they brought forth marvels and wonders when a child I used to gather cow slips in a bed of lush swale beside a little creek at the foot of a big hill on our farm at the summit was an old orchard and in a brush heap a brown thrush nested and then reproduced the love ecstasy of every other bird of the orchard that moth's wings were so exactly the warm though delicate yellow of the flowers I loved that as I looked at it I could feel my bare feet sinking in the damp ooze smell the fragments of the buttercups and here again the ripple of the water and the mating exultation of the brown thrush in the name equals imperialis there is no meaning or appropriateness to equals for the moth is close to the size of sacropia and of truly royal beauty we called it the yellow emperor her imperial golden majesty had a wing sweep of six and a quarter inches from the shoulders spreading in an irregular patch over front and back wings most on the front were markings of heliotrope quite dark in color near the costa of the front wings were two almost circular dots of slightly paler heliotrope on the back wings halfway from each edge and a half an inch from the marking at the base was one round spot of the same color beginning at the apex of the front pair and running to half an inch from the lower edge was a band of a scalloped heliotrope on the back pair this band began half an inch from the edge and ran straight across so that at the outer curve of the wing it was an inch higher the front wing surface and the space above this marking on the back were little oblong touches of heliotrope but from the curved line to the bases of the back pair the coloring was pure canary yellow the top of the head was covered with long, silken hairs of heliotrope then a band of yellow the upper abdomen was strongly shaded with heliotrope almost to the extreme tip the lower sides of the wings were yellow at the base the spots showing through but not the bands and only the faintest touches of the motling were heliotrope fine, thread-like and closely pressed to the head the eyes were smaller than that of sucropia and very close together compared with sucropia these moss were easy to paint their markings were elaborate but they could be followed accurately and the groundwork of color was warm, cow slip yellow the only difficulty was to make the almost thread-like antennae show and to blend the faint touches of heliotrope on the upper wings they were dotted around promiscuously and at first were clear and of amber color but as the little caterpillars grew in them they showed a red line three-fourths of the way around the rim and became slightly depressed in the middle the young emerged in thirteen days they were nearly half an inch long and were yellow with black lines they began the task of eating until they reached the pupa stage by turning on their shells and devouring all of them to the glue by which they were fastened by the process of oak, alder, sumac, elm, cherry and hickory the majority of them seemed to prefer the hickory they molted on the fifth day for the first time and changed to a brown color every five or six days they repeated the process growing larger and of stronger color with each molt and developing a covering of long white hairs part of these molted four times others five at past six weeks of age they were exactly as Mr. Eisen had described them to me in the bed of baked gravel in a tin bucket it is imperative to bake any earth or sand used for them to kill pests invisible to the eye that might bore into the pupa cases and destroy the moss I watched the transformation with intense interest after the caterpillars had finished eating they traveled in search of a place to burrow for a day or two then they gave up and lay quietly on the sand the color darkened hourly the feet and claspers seemed to draw inside and one morning on going to look there were some greenish brown pupae they shone as if freshly varnished as indeed they were for the substance provided to facilitate the emergence of the pupae from the caterpillar skins dries in a coating that helps to harden the cases and protect them these pupae had burst the skins at the thorax and escaped by working the abdomen until they lay an inch or so from the skins what a cast-off garment those skins were only the frailest outside covering complete in all parts and rapidly turning to a dirtier brown the pupae were laid away in a large box having a glass lid it was filled with baked sand covered with sphagnum moss slightly dampened occasionally and placed where it was cool but never at actual freezing point the following spring after the delight of seeing them emerge they were released for I secured a mail to complete my collection a few days later and only grew the caterpillars to prove it possible there was a carnival in the village to the height of the ferris wheels and diving towers the lights must have shown against the sky for miles around for they drew from the limberlost from the canapur from rainbow bottom and the valley of the wood robin their winged creatures of night I know emperors appear in these places in my locality for the caterpillars feed on the leaves found there and enter the ground to pupate so of course the moth of June begins its life in the same location Mr. Pettis found the mated pair to the swamp they also emerge in cities under any tree on which their caterpillars feed once late in May in the corner of a lichen covered old snake fence beside the wabash on the shimp farm I made a series of studies of the home life of a pair of groundsparos they had chosen for a location a slight depression covered with a rank growth of meadow grass overhead while plum and thorn in full bloom lay white sheeted against the blue sky red buds spread its purple haze and at a curve the breast of the river gleamed white as ever women's while underfoot the grass was obscured with masses of wildflowers an unusually fine cluster of white violets attracted me as I worked around the birds so unpacking at the close of the day I lifted the plant to carry home for my wildflower bed below a few inches of rotting leaves and black mold I found a lively pupa of the yellow emperor so these moths emerge and deposit their eggs in the swamps, forests beside the river and wherever the trees on which they feed grow when this serious business of life is over attracted by strong lights they go with other pleasure seeking company and grace society by their royal presence I could have had half a dozen fine imperialist moths during the three nights of the carnival and fluttering above buildings many more could be seen that did not descend to our reach Raymond had such a busy time capturing moths he missed most of the joys of the carnival but I truly think he liked the chase better one he brought me a female was so especially large that I took her to the cabin to be measured and found her to be six and three-quarter inches and of the lightest yellow of any specimen I have seen her wings were quite ragged I imagined she had finished laying her eggs and was nearing the end of life hence she was not so brilliant as a newly emerged specimen the moth proved this theory correct by soon going out naturally choice could be made in all that plethora and a male and female colouring and markings were selected for my studies of a pair one male was mounted and a very large female on a count of her size that completed my imperialist records from eggs to caterpillars, pupae and moths the necessity for a book on this subject made simple to the understanding and attractive to the eye of the masses never was so deeply impressed upon me as in an experience with imperialists Molly Cotton was attending a house party and her host had chartered a pavilion at a city park for a summer night dance at the close of one of the numbers over the heads of the laughing crowd there swept toward the light a large yellow moth with one dexterous sweep the host caught it and while the dancers crowded around him with exclamations of wonder and delight he presented it to Molly Cotton and asked do you know what it is she laughingly answered yes, but you don't one fleeting instant Molly Cotton measured the company there was no one present who was not the graduate of a commissioned high school there were girls who were students at the castle Smith, Vassar and Brynmar the host was a Cornell junior and there were men from Harvard and Yale it is an equals imperialist Eopolephemus Sacropia Regalis she said then in breathless suspense she waited shades of Homer cried the host where did you learn it they are flying all around the cabin she replied there was a tumbler turned over their eggs on the dining room floor and you dared not sit on the right side of the library window seat because of them when I left what do you want with their eggs asked a girl want to hatch their caterpillars and raise them until they transform into these moths answered poor Molly Cotton who had been taught to fear so few living things that at the age of four she had carried a garter snake into the house for a playmate don't they bite you no they don't replied Molly Cotton they don't bite anything except leaves they are fine big fellows their coloring is exquisite and they evolve these beautiful moths I invite all of you to visit us and see for yourselves how intensely interesting they are there was a murmur of polite thanks from the girls but one man measured Molly Cotton from the top curl of her head to the tip of her slippers and answered as great a moth enthusiast as any of us this incident will be recognized as furnishing the bases on which to build the ballroom scene in a girl of the limberlost in which Philip and Edith quarrel over the capture of a yellow emperor but what of these students from the great representative colleges of the United States to whom a jumbled string made from the names of half a dozen moths answered for one of the commonest of all