. Annual report of the Agricultural Experiment Station. Cornell University. Agricultural Experiment Station; Agriculture -- New York (State). Cecropia caterpillar shedding its skin. on the caterpillars during these different molts; in the third stage it has been observed that the tubercles usually blue are sometimes black. After the last molt the caterpil- lar eats voraciously for perhaps two weeks or longer and then begins to spin its cocoon. The cocoon.— This is the co- coon found most often on our orchard and shade trees, and is called by the children the " cradle ; since i
. Annual report of the Agricultural Experiment Station. Cornell University. Agricultural Experiment Station; Agriculture -- New York (State). Cecropia caterpillar shedding its skin. on the caterpillars during these different molts; in the third stage it has been observed that the tubercles usually blue are sometimes black. After the last molt the caterpil- lar eats voraciously for perhaps two weeks or longer and then begins to spin its cocoon. The cocoon.— This is the co- coon found most often on our orchard and shade trees, and is called by the children the " cradle ; since it is shaped like a hammock and hung close below a branch ; it is a very safe shelter for the helpless creature within it. It is made of two walls of silk, the outer one being thick and paper- like and the inner one thin and firm; between these walls is a matting of loose silk, showing that the insect k n o w s how to make a home that will protect it from winter weather. It is a clever builder in an- other respect, since at one end of the cocoon it spins the silk lengthwise in- stead of cross- wise, thus mak- ing a valve through which the moth can push as it issues in the spring. It is very interesting to watch one of these caterpillars spin it>^ cocoon. It first makes a framework l)y stretching a few strands of silk, which like all other caterpillars, it spins from a gland opening in the lower li]); it then makes a loose net work on the supporting strands, and then begins laying on the silk by weaving its head back and forth leaving the sticky thread in the shape of connecting M's or figure 8's. \*ery industriously does it work, and after a short time it is so screened by the silk, that the rest of its performance remains to us a mystery, it is especially mysterious since the inner wall of the cocoon encloses so small a cell that the cater- pillar is obliged to compress itself in order to fit within it. This achieve- ment wcndd be somethino- like that of a man who built ar
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