Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/179

Rh hatch in from ten to fifteen days, according to the temperature of the air. The caterpillars arrive at their full size, which is from two and a half to three inches, in the space of about one month; during which time they, like the caterpillars of the common silk-worm, cast their skin three or four times. They are also composed often segments: across the middle of each are several small, soft, conic-pointed tubercles; otherwise they are smooth and delicately soft. The prevailing colour pale or sea green. In this state they are very voracious, devouring daily many times their own weight of food. (The full grown caterpillar is represented on Plate XV. fig. 1.) The cocoon is white or yellowish, of a very soft and delicate texture; about two inches long and three in circumference, pointed at each end. Enveloped in this case the animal remains dormant from ten to twenty days, according to the state of the weather. The perfect insect issues from one end, and in that state exists from four to eight days, during which period it is wholly employed in the grand work of Nature, generation; remaining perfectly contented in its chamber, seldom attempting to fly away. In this respect it differs exceedingly from the Bughy and Jarroo moths. The caterpillars, like the common silk-worm, are reared in a domestic state, and entirely fed on the leaves of the Palma Christi plant (Recinus communis). The filament of the cocoon is so exceedingly delicate as to render it impracticable to wind off the silk; it is therefore spun like cotton. The