Eisen had described
them to me. Those I kept in confinement pupated on a bed of baked
gravel, in a tin bucket. It is imperative to bake any earth or sand
used for them to kill pests invisible to the eye, that might bore into
the pupa cases and destroy the moths.
I watched the transformation with intense interest. After the
caterpillars had finished eating they travelled in search of a
place to burrow for a day or two. Then they gave up, and lay
quietly on the sand. The colour darkened hourly, the feet and
claspers seemed to draw inside, and one morning on going to look
there were some greenish brown pupae. They shone as if freshly
varnished, as indeed they were, for the substance provided to
facilitate the emergence of the pupae from the caterpillar skins
dries in a coating, that helps to harden the cases and protect them.
These pupae had burst the skins at the thorax, and escaped by
working the abdomen until they lay an inch or so from the skins.
What a "cast off garment" those skins were! Only the frailest
outside covering, complete in all parts, and rapidly turning to
a dirty brown.
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