172 HALP HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 



a board or overhanging piece of bark or in any nook or 

 cranny it settles and spins, in tlie course of a day or two, a 

 dense white cocoon, often of a yellowish color, which is much 

 like that of the common Chinese silk worm, except that it is 

 more pointed at the ends. Our tent caterpillar is not a 

 remote ally of the silk worm, belonging to the same natural 

 family. The supply of silk is by no means exhausted after 

 it spins its cocoon, for if it be removed from its silk}^ house, 

 after a few hours it surrounds itself by a fresh one, and even 

 attempts a third if compelled to by the curiosity of the ex- 

 perimenter. It remains in its cocoon through the remainder 

 of the month, the moth appearing early in July, when it 

 enters our rooms with a headlong flight, and dashes in a 

 peculiar, confused manner upon the table. The moth is un- 

 usually thick-bodied and hairy. It is reddish-brown, with 

 two oblique, dirty white lines on the fore wings, and ex- 

 pands about an inch and a quarter. 



The female immediately lays her eggs in a mass of three 

 or four hundred, standing up side by side around a twig and 

 covered by a gummy secretion. These bunches of eggs form 

 conspicuous objects, and it is easy to pick them off after the 

 leaves have fallen. Before the winter opens the embryo 

 caterpillars are formed and lie in the egg shell all ready to 

 hatch. In the spring they hatch out just as the leaves are 

 beginning to unfold ; and it is curious to watch the habits of 

 the young caterpillai's as they gather in colonies and gradu- 

 ally spin a silken tent in a fork of the branch. They lay 

 down silken paths in every direction over the branches, 

 over which they travel back and forth, their journeys becom- 

 ing longer as the leaves disappear before their ravenous 

 jaws. They work in the forenoon and afternoon in pleas- 

 sant days, taking a siesta at noon, or in stormy weather 

 huddle up together upon or under their silken canop^'. This 

 caterpillar, so large and conspicuous, is easily dealt with, as 

 the nests can be easily removed by a brush or mop dipped 



12 



