Moths of the Limberlost | Page 5

"Most caterpillars make some sort of cocoon or
shelter, which may be of pure silk neatly wound, or of silk mixed with

hair and all manner of external things--such as pieces of leaf, bark,
moss, and lichen, and even grains of earth."
I have had caterpillars spin by the hundred, in boxes containing most of
these things, have gathered outdoor cocoons by the peck, and
microscopically examined dozens of them, and with the exception of
leaf, twig, bark, or some other foundation against which it was spun, I
never have seen a cocoon with shred, filament, or particle of anything
used in its composition that was not drawn from the spinning tube or
internal organism of the caterpillar, with the possible exception of a
few hairs from the tubercles. I have been told by other workers that
they have had captive caterpillars use earth and excrement in their
cocoons.
This same work, in an article on protective colouration, lays emphasis
on the statement that among pupa cases artificially fastened to different
objects out of doors, "the elimination was ninety-two per cent on fences
where pupae were conspicuous, as against fifty-two per cent among
nettles, where they were inconspicuous." This statement is elaborated
and commented upon as making a strong point for colourative
protection through inconspicuousness.
Personally, I think the nettles did the work, regardless of colour. I have
learned to much experience afield that a patch of nettles or thistles
afford splendid protection to any form of life that can survive them. I
have seen insects and nesting birds find a safety in their shelter,
unknown to their kind that home elsewhere. The test is not fair enough
to be worth consideration. If these same pupae had been as
conspicuously placed as on the fence, on any EDIBLE GROWTH, in
the same location as the fence, and then left to the mercy of playing
children, grazing stock, field mice, snakes, bats, birds, insects and
parasites, the story of what happened to them would have been
different. I doubt very seriously if it would have proved the point those
lepidopterists started out to make in these conditions, which are the
only fair ones under which such an experiment could be made.
Many people mentioned in connexion with the specimens they brought
me have been more than kind in helping to collect the material this

volume contains; but its publication scarcely would have been possible
to me had it not been for the enthusiasm of one girl who prefers not to
be mentioned and the work of a seventeen-year-old boy, Raymond
Miller. He has been my sole helper in many difficult days of field work
among the birds, and for the moths his interest reached such a pitch that
he spent many hours afield in search of eggs, caterpillars, cocoons, and
moths, when my work confined me to the cabin. He has carried to me
many of my rarest cocoons, and found in their native haunts several
moths needed to complete the book. It is to be hoped that these
wonderful days afield have brought their own compensation, for
kindness such as his I never can reward adequately. The book proves
my indebtedness to the Deacon and to Molly-Cotton. I also owe thanks
to Bob Burdette Black, the oldest and warmest friend of my bird work,
for many fine moths and cocoons, and to Professor R. R. Rowley for
the laborious task of scientifically criticizing this book and with
unparalleled kindness lending a helping hand where an amateur
stumbled.
CHAPTER II
MOTHS, EGGS, CATERPILLARS, WINTER QUARTERS
If you are too fastidious to read this chapter, it will be your permanent
loss, for it contains the life history, the evolution of one of the most
amazingly complicated and delicately beautiful creatures in existence.
There are moths that come into the world, accomplish the functions that
perpetuate their kind, and go out, without having taken any
nourishment. There are others that feed and live for a season. Some fly
in the morning, others in the glare of noon, more in the evening, and
the most important class of big, exquisitely lovely ones only at night.
This explains why so many people never have seen them, and it is a
great pity, for the nocturnal, non-feeding moths are birdlike in size,
flower-like in rare and complicated colouring, and of downy, silent
wing.
The moths that fly by day and feed are of the Sphinginae group, Celeus
and Carolina, or Choerocampinae, which includes the exquisite

Deilephila Lineata, and its cousins; also Sphingidae, which cover the
clear-winged Hemaris diffinis and Thysbe. Among those that fly at
night only and take no food are the members of what is called the
Attacine group, comprising our largest and commonest moth, Cecropia;
also its near relative Gloveri, smaller than Cecropia and oflovely rosy