Volume 33, Plate XII / Entomology (Insects)

Hyalophora Promethea

An American silk-moth figured in both sexes, the male dark chocolate-brown with a light margin, waved lines, and a blue-crescented black spot near the tip, the female reddish-brown with a dark red inner half and angular light spots. Its green caterpillar, marked with blue spots and coral-red clavate projections, feeds on sassafras and spice-wood, ingeniously securing a leaf-wrapped cocoon to the branch where it passes the winter; the silk is fine but hard to reel.