One died from causes unknown.
One stuck in pupation, and moulded in its skin. Three went through
the succession of moults and feeding periods in fine shape, and the
first week in September transformed into shiny pupa cases, not one
of which was nearly as large as that of the caterpillar brought to
me by Mr. Idlewine. I fed these caterpillars on black walnut leaves,
as they ate them in preference to hickory.
I am slightly troubled about this moth. In Packard's "Guide to the
Study of Moths", he writes: "Citheronia Regalis expands five to six
inches, and its fore-wings are olive coloured, spotted with
yellow and veined with broad red lines, while the hind wings are
orange-red, spotted with olive, green, and yellow."
He describes two other species. Citheronia Mexicana, a tropical
moth that has drifted as far north as Mexico. It is quite similar
to Regalis, "having more orange and less red," but it is not
recorded as having been found within a thousand miles of my
locality. A third small species, Citheronia sepulcralis, expands
only a little over three inches, is purple-brown with yellow
spots; and is a rare Atlantic Coast species having been found once
in Massachusetts, oftener in Georgia, never west of Pennsylvania.
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