Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . er ones much looser than the inner, with the hairs ofthe caterpillar intermingled with the silk on the inside layers. When this cocoonis first spun it is white, butthe caterpillar soon coloursit yellow wdth an excretionfrom the body. The caterpillars generallyprefer some sort of frame-work to build their cocoonsupon. They commonly choose the leaves of treesfor this purpose. Some-times a single large leaf wallbe used, its edges beingfolded over, as in the caseof the cocoons in apple andcurrant leaves, s
Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . er ones much looser than the inner, with the hairs ofthe caterpillar intermingled with the silk on the inside layers. When this cocoonis first spun it is white, butthe caterpillar soon coloursit yellow wdth an excretionfrom the body. The caterpillars generallyprefer some sort of frame-work to build their cocoonsupon. They commonly choose the leaves of treesfor this purpose. Some-times a single large leaf wallbe used, its edges beingfolded over, as in the caseof the cocoons in apple andcurrant leaves, shown inFigures 51 and 52; whileat others, several smallerleaves may be deftly drawn together, as in the bar-berry leaf cocoon shown in Figure 53. If the insecthappens to be in a pine tree, it will utilize the pine nee-dles for this purpose, and even such delicate structuresas the panicles of the smoke bush or fringe tree mayserve the purpose. Where the catei*pillars are numer-ous, the foliage of the trees is almost wholly webbed upwhen the cocoons are made, giving the trees a strange, 46. Fig. 51. — Cocoons in Apple Leaves. A Devastator of Forests. bunchy appearance. Many of the caterpillars, however,leave the trees, and seek shelter in other situations, suchas crevices in the roughbark, beneath boards orstones upon the ground, inthe crannies of a fence,along the clapboards, or be-neath the gables of build-ings. Wherever the cocoon isspun the caterpillar inside ofit soon changes to a pupa orchrysalis — an oval, brownobject without legs or wings,able to move only by afeeble wriggle of its pupa that is to de-velop into a female moth is^ slightly larger than that of the male. Inthis stage the insect takes no food,but its tissues undergo such remark-able changes that about ten or twelvedays after the cocoon is made, abuff-brown moth emerges from thechrysalis and makes its way throughone end of the cocoon. This is theadult form of the forest tent cater-pillar. The male
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1901
