500 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



also live over winter beneath chips or bunches of leaves near the 

 roots of their food plant, or in webs of their own construction, 

 which are woven on the stems close to the buds whose expanding 

 leaves will furnish them their first meal in spring. 



Many insects pass the winter in the quiescent or pupal stage ; 

 a state exceedingly well fitted for hibernating, requiring, as it 

 does, no food, and giving plenty of time for the marvelous 

 changes which are then undergone. Some of these pupse are in- 

 closed in dense silken cocoons, which are bound to the twigs of 

 the plants upon which the larvae feed, and thus they swing se- 

 curely in their silken hammock through all the storms of winter. 

 Perhaps the most common of these is that of the brown Cecropian 

 moth, the large oval cocoon of which is a conspicuous object in 

 winter on the twigs of our common shade and fruit trees. Many 

 other pupae may be found beneath logs or on the under side of 

 bark, and usually have the chrysalis surrounded by a thin cover- 

 ing of hairs, which are rather loosely arranged. A number pass 

 the cold season in the earth with no protective covering what- 

 ever. Among these is a large brown chrysalis with a long 

 tongue-case bent over so as to resemble the handle of a jug. 

 Every farm boy has plowed or spaded it up in the spring, and it 

 is but the pupa of a large moth, the larva of which is the great 

 green worm with a "horn on its tail," so common on tomato 

 plants in the late summer. 



Each of the winter forms of insects above mentioned can with- 

 stand long and severe cold weather in fact, may be frozen solid 

 for weeks and retain life and vigor, both of which are shown 

 when warm weather and food appear again. Indeed, it is not an 

 unusually cold winter, but one of successive thawings and freez- 

 ings, which is most destructive to insect life. A mild winter 

 encourages the growth of mold which attacks the hibernating 

 larvae and pupae as soon as, from excess of rain or humidity, they 

 become sickly ; and it also permits the continued activity of in- 

 sectivorous mammals and birds. Thus, moles, shrews, and field 

 mice, instead of burying themselves deeply in the ground, run 

 about freely during an open winter, and destroy enormous num- 

 bers of pupae; while such birds as the woodpeckers, titmice, and 

 chickadees are constantly on the alert, and searching in every 

 crevice and cranny of fence and bark of tree for the hiber- 

 nating larvae. 



Of the creeping, wingless creatures which can ever be found 

 beneath rocks, rails, chunks, and especially beneath those old 

 decaying logs which are half buried in the rich vegetable mold, 

 the myriapods, or "thousand-legs," deserve more than passing 

 notice. They are typical examples of that great branch of the 

 animal kingdom known as artliropods, which comprises all in- 



