the hour-moth keeps no internal clock. it borrows the hour from the room it has settled in. on each forewing a small dial appears, and the hands of the dial show the time of the place that has most recently received it.
it is seen most easily in rooms where the watch has stopped or the clock-room disagrees with itself. when two hour-moths meet they hesitate, compare wings, and one of them — quietly, without ceremony — adjusts.
in the hourglass room they are reported to settle on the upper bulb. the time on their wings is then the time of falling. occasionally a wing shows four a.m.; this is the wing the observer keeps remembering.
— pinned one to a sheet of paper at noon. by morning the wings read three minutes past three. — w.b., entomologist.