Moths of the Limberlost: A Book About Limberlost Cabin

indicated by the fact that it is named in honour of the giant Polyphemus. Telea means 'the end,' and as scientists fail to explain the appropriateness of this, I am at liberty to indulge a

y, it is the one moth that must be seen and studied in minutest detail to gain an idea of its beauty. The nearest I can come to the general groundwork of the wing is a rich brown-yellow. The costa is grey, this colour spreading in a widening line from the base of the wing to m

ainter until it merges with the general colour near the abdomen. Then half an inch of the yellow-brown colour is peppered with black, similar to the costa; this grows darker until it terminates in a quarter of an inch wide band of almost grey-black crossing the wing. Next this comes a narrower band of pinkish white. The edge begins with a quarter of an inch band

colour, and with the exception of the brown rift are the same in ma

nd of stronger colour. The black band around the lower half is yet wider, and of long velvety hairs. It extends in an oval above

shades of rich brown. The transparent spots are outlined with ca

ped like those of Cecropia. The grey band of the costa crosses the top of the head. The shoulders are c

se descriptions do the harmonizing colours of the moth no sort of justice, but are the best I ca

living Polyphemus battered to rags and fringes, antennae broken and three feet missing. He had found a woman trying to beat the clinging creature loose from a door screen, with a towel, before th

n, and another, to attribute the experience to Mrs. Comstock in "A Girl of the Limberlost", when I wished to make her do something particularly disagreeable. In learning a moth I study its eggs, cat

gainst the limbs and worn away the projecting edges of the leaves, but the midribs and veins showed plainly. In all we had half a dozen of these cocoons gathered from different parts of the swamp, and we found them dangling from a twig of willow or hawthorn, by a small piece of spinning. During the winter these occupied the pla

side door, always open, provide natural atmospheric conditions, and where I would be sure to see them every day. I hung the twigs over a twine stretched from my dresser to the window-sill. O

wered. "I have done no sprinkling today. If

ed. "I just now thought of it. The moths are coming!" She started on a run and I followe

ngs, wet, and wrinkled as they had been cramped in the pupa case. Even then she had expanded in body until it seemed impossible that she had emerged from the opening of the vacant cocoon. The second one had its front feet and head out,

n sympathy with th

cocoons so they can get out?" she demanded. "Just

merge alone, in order to strengthen them so they would be able to walk and cling with their feet, while the wings drooped and dried properly. That if I cut a case, and took out a moth with no effort on its part, it would be too weak to walk, or

such as these, in natural history and study with it, so that every miraculous point is grasped when reached. We left the emerging moths long enough to set up a camera outside, and focus on old

nother female. The third was out, and by its smaller size, brighter markings and broad antennae we knew it was a male. His 'antlers' were much wider than those of the first two, and where their markings were pink, his were so vivid as to be a

tring across the window and hang him in the suns

males began ejecting a creamy liquid. They ruined the frescoing behind them, as my first Cecropia soiled the lace curtain when I was smaller than Molly-Cotton at that time. We tacked a paper a

bed the twig, walked the twine body pendent, and was so energetic that we thought we dared not trust him out of doors; but when at every effort to walk or fly he only

beside me hovering her with a net. The moth climbed from the twig to the tree, and clung there, her wings spread flat, at times setting them quivering in a fluttering motion,

I helped the female on a small branch facing the trunk of the tree, and she rested with raised wings as I fervently hoped she would. The male I placed on the trunk, and with wide wings he immediately started toward the female, while she advanced in his direction. This showed his large antennae and all markings and points especially note wor

ade me rather expert in using my cameras. When the advancing pair were fully inside my circle of focus, I made the first exposure.

been time, I would have made a third to be sure, for plates are no object when a study is at all worth while. As a rule each succeeding effort enables you to make some small change

e in a shady spot, and the male at the extreme far side to see how soon he would find her. We had supposed it

it was too late; but cutting open the cocoon afterward proved the moth defective. The wings on one side were only

r with a brown band. The moth dotted them on the under and upper sides of leaves, on sashes and flower pots, tubs and buckets. The

af before fifty, that seemed liveliest, and transferred them to a big box. The remainder I placed with less ceremony, over mulber

travelled a day or two before beginning the pupa stage of their existence. The caterpillars were big fellows; the segments deeply cut; the bodies yellow-green, with a few sparse scattering hairs, and on the edge of each segment, from

re placed previous to that time. Since, I have found them spun lengthwise of twigs in a brush heap. The cocoons of these I had raised were whiter than

nce I learned them, find their cocoons easiest to discover. Through the fall and winter, when riding on trains, I see them dangling from wayside thorn bus

s many Polyphemus cocoons on the trees as there were Cecropia, and I could have gathered a bushel of them. They ha

f their family, and love the

pecimen of Polyphemus as I ever saw, and the following day a friend told