By the time I inserted the slide, turned the plate holder and
removed another 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 began a queer 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 to the board beside the
cocoons. It immediately clung to the wood. The big pursy
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 can be seen
clearly.
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