There is one other possibility to account for the moth at this time.  Beyond all question the gorgeous creature is of tropical origin.  It has made its way north from South or Central America.  It occurs more frequently in Florida and Georgia than with us, and there it is known to have been double brooded; so standing on the records of professional lepidopterists, that gives rise to grounds for the possibility that in some of our long, almost tropical Indiana summers, Regalis may be double brooded with us.  At any rate, many people saw the living moth in my possession on this date.  In fact, I am prepared to furnish abundant proof of every statement contained in this chapter; while at the same time admitting that it reads like the veriest fairy tale `ever thought or wondered.’

The storm had passed and the light was fine, so we posed the moth before the camera several times.  It was nervous business, for he was becoming restless, and every instant I expected him to fly, but of course we kept hiM guarded.

There was no hope of a female that late date, so the next step was to copy his colours and markings as exactly as possible.  He was the gaudiest moth of my experience, and his name seemed to suit rarely well.  Citheroma—­a Greek poet, and Regalis—­regal.  He was truly royal and enough to inspire poetry in a man of any nation.  His face-was orange-brown, of so bright a shade that any one at a glance would have called it red.  His eyes were small for his size, and his antennae long, fine, and pressed against the face so closely it had to be carefully scrutinized to see them.  A band of bright canary-yellow arched above them, his thorax was covered above with long silky, orange-brown hairs, and striped lengthwise with the same yellow.  His abdomen was the longest and slenderest I had seen, elegantly curved like a vase, and reaching a quarter of an inch beyond the back wings, which is unusual.  It was thickly covered with long hair, and faintly lined at the segments with yellow.  The claspers were very sharp, prominent brown hooks.  His sides were dotted with alternating red and orangebrown spots, and his thorax beneath, yellow.  The under side of the abdomen was yellow, strongly shaded with orange-brown.  His legs and feet were the same.

His fore-wings were a silvery lead colour, each vein covered with a stripe of orange-brown three times its width.  The costa began in lead colour, and at half its extent shaded into orange-brown.  Each front wing had six yellow spots, and a seventh faintly showing.  Half an inch from the apex of the wings, and against the costa, lay the first and second spots, oblong in shape, and wide enough to cover the space between veins.  The third was a tiny dot next the second.  The hint of one crossed the next vein, and the other three formed a triangle; one lay at the costa about three-quarters of an inch from the base, the second at the same distance from the base at the back edge of the wing, and the third formed the apex, and fell in the middle, on the fifth space between veins, counting from either edge.  These were almost perfectly round.  The back wings were very hairy, of a deep orange-brown at the base, shading to lighter tones of the same colour at the edge, and faintly clouded in two patches with yellow.