I held the hat while the Deacon brought the board.  Then with trembling care we slipped it under, and carefully carried the moth into the conservatory.  First we turned on the light, and made sure that every ventilator was closed; then we released the Io for the night.  In the morning we found a female clinging to a shelf, dotting it with little top-shaped eggs.  I was delighted, for I thought this meant the complete history of a beautiful moth.  So exquisite was the living, breathing creature, she put to shame the form and colouring of the mounted specimens.  No wonder I had not cared for them!

Her fore-wings were a strong purplish brown in general effect, but on close examination one found the purplish tinge a commingling of every delicate tint of lavender and heliotrope imaginable.  They were crossed by escalloped bands of greyish white, and flecked with touches of the same, seeming as if they had been placed with a brush.  The back wings were a strong yellow.  Each had, for its size, an immense black eye-spot, with a blue pupil covering three-fourths of it, crossed by a perfect comma of white, the heads toward the front wings and the curves bending outward.  Each eye-spot was in a yellow field, strongly circled with a sharp black line; then a quarter of an inch band of yellow; next a heliotrope circle of equal width; yellow again twice as wide; then a faint heliotrope line; and last a very narrow edging of white.  Both wings joined the body under a covering of long, silky, purple-brown hairs.

She was very busy with egg depositing, and climbed to the twig held before her without offering to fly.  The camera was carried to the open, set up and focused on a favourable spot, while Molly-Cotton walked beside me holding a net over the moth in case she took flight in outer air.  The twig was placed where she would be in the deepest shade possible while I worked rapidly with the camera.

By this time experience had taught me that these creatures of moonlight and darkness dislike the open glare of day, and if placed in sunlight will take flight in search of shade more quickly than they will move if touched.  So until my Io settled where I wanted her with the wings open, she was kept in the shadow.  Only when I grasped the bulb and stood ready to snap, was the covering lifted, and for the smallest fraction of a second the full light fell on her; then darkness again.

In three days it began to be apparent there was something wrong with the eggs.  In four it was evident, and by five I was not expecting the little caterpillars to emerge, and they did not.  The moth had not mated and the eggs were not fertile.  Then I saw my mistake.  Instead of shutting the female in the conservatory at night, I should have tied a soft cotton string firmly around her body, and fastened it to some of the vines on the veranda.  Beyond all doubt, before morning, a male of her kind would have been attracted to her.