Insects : their life-histories and habits . No musty chronicles existto tell us how they fared in long-past ages. But in thelives of insects to-day we may read, if we will, some recordof their history. Social life in its most simple form is typified by manycaterpillars which weave, by their united effort, a web ofsilk over their food plant, thus forming a kind of tentwhich shelters the whole brood. Sometimes these tentsare very stoutly wrought, and are tenanted throughoutthe winter; or they may be mere booths which arerenewed from time to time in accordance with the needsof their inmates. Thes
Insects : their life-histories and habits . No musty chronicles existto tell us how they fared in long-past ages. But in thelives of insects to-day we may read, if we will, some recordof their history. Social life in its most simple form is typified by manycaterpillars which weave, by their united effort, a web ofsilk over their food plant, thus forming a kind of tentwhich shelters the whole brood. Sometimes these tentsare very stoutly wrought, and are tenanted throughoutthe winter; or they may be mere booths which arerenewed from time to time in accordance with the needsof their inmates. These social caterpillars often displayremarkable unity of action. They have set times for feed-ing, for basking in the sun outside their tent, and forresting within its shelter; and when one individual moves,the rest all follow. The caterpillars of the European pro-cessionary moth (Cnethocampa processiojiea) leave theirnest at sundown, and march to their feeding grounds inwedge-shaped order. It is said that the pioneer emits a 274 Plate XXXIX. toTi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1913
