Insect Study. '/2'/ 



to fifteen days after they are laid, but the hatching may be retarded by 

 cold weather. 



Caterpillar. — When the caterpillar hatches from the egg it is about a 

 quarter of an inch long and is black ; each segment is ornamented with six 

 spiny tubercles. Like all other caterpillars, it has to grow by shedding its 

 horny, skeleton skin, the soft skin beneath stretching to give more room at 

 first, then finally hardening and being shed in its turn ; this shedding of the 

 skin is called molting. The first molt of the cecropia caterpillar occurs 

 about four days after it is hatched, and the caterpillar which issues looks 

 quite dififerently than it did before ; it is now dull orange or yellow with 

 black tubercles. After six or seven days more of feeding, the skin is 

 again shed and now the caterpillar appears with a yellow body ; the two 

 tubercles on the top of each segment are now larger and more noticeable. 



Cecropia caterpillars fully groivn. 



They are blue on the first segment, large and orange-red on the second 

 and third segments, and greenish blue with blackish spots and spines on 

 all the other segments except the eleventh, which has on top, one large, 

 yellow tubercle, ringed with black, instead of a pair of tubercles. The 

 tubercles along the side of the insect are blue during this stage. The 

 next molt occurs five or six days later ; this time the caterpillar is bluish- 

 green in color, the large tubercles on the second and third segments being 

 deep orange, those on the upper part of the other segments yellow, except 

 those on the first and last segments, which are blue. All the other 

 tubercles along the sides are blue. After the fourth molt it appears as 

 an enormous caterpillar, often attaining the length of three inches and 

 is as large through as a man's thumb : its colors are the same as in the 

 preceding stage. There is some variation in the colors of the tubercles 



