The female I placed on a lemon tree in a shady spot,
and the male at the extreme far side to see how soon he would find her.
We had supposed it would be dark, but they were well acquainted by
dusk. The next morning she was dotting eggs over the plants.
The other cocoons produced mostly female living moths, save one
that was lost in emergence. I tried to help when it was too late;
but cutting open the cocoon afterward proved the moth defective.
The wings on one side were only about half size, and on the other
little patches no larger than my thumb nail. The body was
shrunken and weakly.
At this time, as I remember, Cecropia eggs were the largest I had
seen, but these were larger; the same shape and of a white colour
with a brown band. The moth dotted them on the under and upper
sides of leaves, on sashes and flower pots, tubs and buckets. They
turned brown as the days passed. The little caterpillars that
emerged from them were reddish brown, and a quarter of an inch
long.
I could not see my way to release a small army of two or three
hundred of these among my plants, so when they emerged I held a
leaf before fifty, that seemed liveliest, and transferred them to
a big box.
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