The cast skin
rapidly darkens, and as I never have 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 six 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 colour and assumes the shape of a
perfect specimen. 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 Celeus, and Carolina, Regalis and Imperialis coming
through the surface, abdomen tip first.
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