THE FALL WEBWORM SNODGRASS. 



397 



They generally select for their eggs a leaf toward the tip of a twig, 

 which suits the caterpillars best since they prefer to work toward 

 the base of a branch. The eggs are usually stuck to the under side 

 of the leaf and, when all are laid, they form a flat mass of closely 

 placed spheres covering an irregular area one-fourth to one-third of 

 a square inch in extent, which may include as many as 500 eggs, 

 though 200 to 300 is a more usual number. The finished egg patch 

 has a fuzzy white appearance (pi. 2, A), because it is covered with a 

 soft matting of fine scales rubbed from the under surface of the 

 body of the moth. The eggs (fig. 2) are glued to the leaf by a 

 gummy substance exuded when they are laid. Each is spherical and, 

 when fresh, is of a pale, glistening greenish color. The surface is 

 roughened like the skin of an orange, except on top where there is a 

 round central smooth area. The sphere has a diameter of about one- 

 fiftieth of an inch. 



A moth was observed at Wallingford, Conn., laying her eggs the 

 1st of June. These eggs began to hatch on the 15th, but 24 hours 



before hatching they exhibited a change of 

 color, turning from the pale greenish tint 

 to a leaden gray. Those that were laid first 

 were the first to change, and as the hatch- 

 ing progressed the dark color gradually 

 spread across the mass. The hatching ex- 

 tended over three days. Each inclosed cater- 

 pillar liberates itself by eating a hole in 

 the top of its shell large enough to admit its head and shoulders 

 Then it calmly crawls out, straightening and stretching to nearly a 

 twenty-fifth of an inch in length, and leisurely wanders about over 

 the eggs or explores the immediate neighborhood of the leaf. The 

 first to come out remain about the egg patch waiting for the others. 

 Being communists by nature they appear to feel, even at this early 

 stage, that they are helpless as individuals. They while away the 

 time with a little nibbling at the empty eggshells and with trying 

 their spinnerets by weaving a few threads over the eggs and the 

 near part of the leaf. By the time the majority are out, however, 

 the eggs are often covered with a delicate sheet of silk and frequently 

 a web is spun over a considerable area of the leaf. But with those 

 observed by the writer the crowd usually migrated in a mass to the 

 upper surface of the leaf or to an adjacent leaf before starting the 

 first regular tent. Here the tiny creatures appear to pile up in a writh- 

 ing squirming mass, all inextricably tangled in an intricate network 

 of threads which they are spinning and weaving as if their young lives 

 depended on its shelter. The mass of silk grows rapidly and before 



Fig. 2. — Four eggs on a 

 piece of leaf (greatly en- 

 larged). 



