of two sets of mouthparts because one has lost connection with 

 muscles and the other is imprisoned. 



The strain of the new head within the old neck band, however, at 

 last tells. A quick rip around the "collar," and the old skull has 

 lost its connection with the skin behind it and the new head has 

 popped out through the hole. After that the molt is soon over, six 

 new "true" feet follow the head through the aperture, five pairs of 

 new "false" feet are withdrawn from their respective stockings and 

 a new creature walks down the stubble, leaving behind him, upon 

 the molting mat, his discarded skin, — a shrunken, headless semblance 

 of his former self. 



The overwintering garment was set with black and yellow hairs, 

 the yellow not being a fast color, fading to a dingy straw tone before 

 spring; and all the other overwintering individuals of his species 

 were like him. But with the spring molt, such differences appear 

 as to make these caterpillars good material for a study in variation. 

 After the mid-April molt some individuals are still black and yellow, 

 practically, only a larger and fresher edition of the overwintering 

 style ; some have the hair-tufts along the sides of the body white 

 instead of black ; and some have these tufts mixed black and white, 

 and are consequently grayish in appearance ; all, so far as my own 

 collections have shown, retain at this time the row of eight black tufts 

 extending along the middle of the back. Later, however, another 

 molt takes place, and with it is manifested even a greater variation in 

 these caterpillars. Some are still black and yellow, and the sprink- 

 ling of yellow may be so slight that the caterpillar is nearly black ; 

 others have the black entirely replaced by white hairs, even to the 

 mid dorsal tufts ; and between the darkest color varieties and the 

 palest blondes (the most beautiful of these caterpillars) are all 

 gradations of black and white, though all preserve some yellow along 

 each side of the dorsal tufts regardless of whether these tufts be 

 jet black or snow white. The skin beneath the hair is subject to no 

 such variation, and in this stage, the ten "false" feet are always wine- 

 red, the six "true" feet are always black and the head always wine- 

 red with a black face. 



Between the middle of May and early June, fewer and fewer of 

 these caterpillars are to be seen. Instead, we find an increasing 

 number of black and yellow, black and white and yellow, and white 

 and yellow objects along the grassy roadside or at the meadow mar- 

 gins. These objects attached to stubble or bush-stem or post or 

 board or wire or any other convenient support, are the cocoons of 

 our grass-eating caterpillars and vary in shade according to the com- 

 plexion of the artists that fashioned them. 



I say "artist" with a deliberate admiration for the creature that, 

 without practice, weaves a structure so perfect. Any human, elated 

 with the pride of construction and pleased when (with models for 



12 



