176 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA 



The "Woolly Bear" 



Caterpillar's Fate 



IIILE walking along the roadside one 

 August day I found a "woolly bear" 

 caterpillar, about an inch in length, on 

 a leaf of the boneset. I had no sooner 

 picked the stem of the plant for nearer inspection than I 

 discovered a soft, shapeless grub commencing to emerge from 

 the side of the caterpillar's body. Judging from the size of 

 the whitish grub, it must have filled the greater part of the 

 interior of its victim's body. It presently came completely out 

 and crawled to the underside of the leaf stem. After resting 

 a few minutes it l)egan to spin a cocoon with its mouth, 

 attaching itself to the leaf. Strands of fine silk continued to 

 pour out, and as fast as formed they were thrown or looped 

 back and forth, and worked l^ackwards by a worm-like move- 

 ment of the body. Finally, as these numerous threads were 

 added from before, backwards, little by little, the cocoon of 

 quite firm texture was formed, such as shown in the initial 

 drawing. When finished, it was scarcely more than a quarter 

 of an inch in length having dark, band-like mottlings near each 

 bluntly rounded extremity. This little piece of architecture 

 was preserved in a box, and at the end of ten days there 

 emerged from it a most delicate, mature hymenopterous insect. 

 This specimen was sent to Ashmead for identification, and 



