Several days
later I opened each of the cocoons and made interior studies. The
one on the right was split down the left side and turned back to
shpw the bed of spun silk of exquisite colour 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,
and the cast caterpillar skin crowded 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 in a heap instead of placing them as do these moths in
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
Cecropia history; eggs, full-grown caterpillars, twin cocoons, and
the story of the emergence of the moths that wintered in them.
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