4 STORIES OF INSECT LIFE. 



rest. Soon it begins weaving about itself a silken shroud, the 

 glands in the mouth which furnish the thread to guide it 

 homeward from its feeding grounds again doing duty for the 

 shroud. Before long the caterpillar is hidden within the white 

 silken woof. It next ejects from its body a yellow fluid which 

 runs among the silken meshes and gives the cocoon — for so the 

 shroud is called — a yellow color (Fig. 4). 



Fig. 4. — Cocoon of Tent Caterpillar. 



The body of the caterpillar now becomes shorter and thicker. 

 Before long the skin on the front part of its back splits open 

 and the caterpillar wriggles violently until the skin is finally 

 crowded off to the hinder end, and there lies within the cocoon 

 only a brown chrysalis. 



The change from the active caterpillar to the quiet chrysalis 



is a strange transformation. The 

 chrysalis takes no food, and its 

 only movement is a feeble wrig- 

 gle. The insect remains in this 

 condition for nearly two weeks. 

 Then another change takes 

 place : the skin of the chrysalis 

 splits apart and there comes forth a queer-looking moth that 



Fig. 5. — Moth of Tent Caterpillar. 



