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 three hundred
caterpillars survived to each female moth. The young feed on
apple, willow, maple, box-elder, or wild cherry leaves; and grow
through a series of feeding periods and moults, during which they
rest for a few days, cast the skin and intestinal lining and then
feed for another period.
After the females have finished depositing their eggs, they cling
to branches, vines or walls a few days, fly aimlessly at night
and then pass out without ever having taken food.
Cecropia has several `Cousins,' Promethea, Angulifera, Gloveri,
and Cynthia, that vary slightly in marking and more in colour. All
are smaller than Cecropia. The male of Promethea is the darkest moth
of the Limberlost. The male of Angulifera is a brownish grey, the
female reddish, with warm tan colours on her wing borders. She is
very beautiful. The markings on the wings of both are not half-moon
shaped, as Cecropia and Gloveri, but are oblong, and largest at the
point next the apex of the wing.
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