Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . Fig. 66. — A completely enclosed Tent. The Choke-cherry Tent-maker. their edges together by means of the silken threads thatapparently are available from the time of hatching. Theyfeed upon the succulent tissues of the shelter they thusconstruct,and withinwhich they are toremain for the nextfew weeks. Newleaves are added tothe webbed massfrom day to day,and before long thelarvae are able ^tobend good-sizedtwigs to their pur-pose, as seen inFigure 67, whichalso shows the wayin which the leavesare eaten
Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . Fig. 66. — A completely enclosed Tent. The Choke-cherry Tent-maker. their edges together by means of the silken threads thatapparently are available from the time of hatching. Theyfeed upon the succulent tissues of the shelter they thusconstruct,and withinwhich they are toremain for the nextfew weeks. Newleaves are added tothe webbed massfrom day to day,and before long thelarvae are able ^tobend good-sizedtwigs to their pur-pose, as seen inFigure 67, whichalso shows the wayin which the leavesare eaten on theedge just insidethe web. As fastas the leaves areeaten new twigs arewebbed over andbrought into posi-tion (Fig. 68), thetops being broughttogether in such a way as to form at last a veritable conical tent, a com-mon form of which is shown in Figure 69. The silkenthreads must have remarkable streno^th to web andhold together the good-sized twigs that are often thusenclosed. 67. Fig. 67,- ?Tent showing the Way in which theLeaves are eaten. Nature Biographies. Within this tent the larvse pass their Kves, gatheringtogether toward the middle during the day, when theyare not feeding, and enlarging the tent and feedingtoward dusk or after dark. They moult from time totime as their growth requires, keeping well within shelter at these critical the food supply ofthe original bush be-comes exhausted, thelarvae web up the sur-rounding grass andherbage; probably insearch for anothercherry bush. If onebe found, they takepossession of it. Eachoriginal colony com-monly consists of agreat number of larvae,— probably more thana h u n d r e d, — andneighbouring coloniesappear often to joinforces in the operationof tent-making, especially after this wandering for foodbegins. These tent-making larva? are rather slender, naked,,whitish, wormlike caterpillars, without conspicuous mark-ings except the blackish heads. Except for the tent,they have no means of prot
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1901
