886 



Rural School Leaflet 



Eggs (enlarged) 



to deceive hungry birds. In fact, few birds, except the chickadees, find 

 these eggs. This busy midget makes it his business to carefully examine 

 twigs in his search for insect eggs, and so he has discovered 

 this mother-moth's egg basket. 



From these eggs hatch tiny caterpillars with large 

 heads. The first thing they do is to have breakfast from 

 apple buds or new leaves; then they climb down the twig, 

 the whole family together, to the nearest fork of the branch 

 that offers a convenient support for their home, and there 

 they begin to spin their web, or tent. The silk gland is 

 within the body of the caterpillar, but it has its opening near 

 the lower lip, so that the caterpillars seem to spin silk from their mouths; 

 the spiders, on the contrary, have their spinnerets on the rear end of the 

 body. The web of the tent caterpillar is at first a little triangular affair, 

 consisting of irregular sheets of silk between which the tiny caterpillars 

 can be protected from the rain, just as cozily as we are in our tents when 

 we are out camping. There they stay during the nights and on dark and 

 stormy days ; only on pleasant days do the caterpillars go out to get their 

 food, which consists of the leaves. 



And wherever he goes each little caterpillar spins a thread of silk so 

 that he has no trouble in finding his way back home. Each caterpillar 

 grows for a time until his stiff, horny skin is too tight for comfort. He 

 then retires into the web and sheds the old skin, and afterward goes back 

 to his business of eating in a new elastic skin that gives him plenty of 

 room; but this, too, hardens and in turn must be shed, for 

 this is the way all young insects grow. Each time the new 

 skin may be a little different in color from the old one. 



The tent caterpillars are social insects and always live 

 together in peace and harmony. As they grow they enlarge 

 their tent until it is sometimes two feet or more in length. 

 Finally, when fully grown the whole band scatters and 

 each for himself finds a place in which to pass the pupa 

 state. At this time any one who is unprejudiced must 

 admit that the tent caterpillars have beautiful colors. 

 They are velvety brown, spotted with purple and yellow, 

 and have a most ornamental fringe of "whiskers" along 

 each side of the body. They have six true legs, one pair 

 to each of the three segments of the body behind the 

 head. Each of these legs 'has a sharp, shining claw at the 

 tip. These true legs are used often for holding the leaf 

 in place while the caterpillar eats; meanwhile, he holds himself to the 

 branch by four pairs of fleshy legs with hooks on them, which extend 



Egg viass 



