110 " LOBSTER ' CATERPILLAR. 



Caterpillars, besides those already mentioned (the Bark 

 Builders the Hammock Weavers the Tent Makers the 

 Leaf Marchers the Posture Masters and the Cannibal 

 Fratricides of our city), begin, or pass a portion of, their lives 

 upon the oak. 



From the earliest opening of the leaves up to the present 

 month, and beyond it, numerous varieties of these may be 

 obtained, by spreading a cloth, or holding an inverted umbrella, 

 under the shaken boughs of the tree ; but the best hours (as 

 collectors well know) for the performance of such operation 

 are those which follow directly on the dawn of day, when the 

 gormandizing crew are accustomed to assemble at their early 

 breakfasts. 



\V<> have no room for description of the more common 

 "fry," which are likely to reward the early insect sportsman, 

 by falling into his sheet, or umbrella net ; but we must not over- 

 look (neither must he] the queerest, perhaps, of all Caterpillar 

 Fish one which may happen, if good luck attend him, to be 

 foundinsorne August or September haul. This is the " Lobster }: 

 (Caterpillar), a prize, we can tell you; and though it will not 

 now, when expanded into the "Lobster Moth," fetch its 

 fortunate finder, as it would once, a five-pound note, it will 

 draw upon him for not a few notes of admiration, paid readily 

 at sight. Without even the trouble of spreading net or shaking 

 bough with that, merely, of walking with our eyes open, we 

 are just as likely to obtain possession of this insect oddity. 



