4.i6 



The Moths and Butterflies 



twig of an apple or wild-cherry tree; the eggs do not hatch until the follow- 

 ing spring, when the young larva; feed on the buds and young leaves of the 

 tree. The social larva; build a little web or nest in the fork of a branch, 



going out of it only to feed. As the 

 caterpillars grow they enlarge the web 

 until it becomes a bulky ugly affair 

 perhaps two feet long, partly filled with 

 e.xcrement and cast skins. The full- 

 grown caterpillars are blackish with 

 yellow and bluish spots, white stri[)ed 

 along the back, and covered with fine 

 yellowish hairs. "They feed on the 

 young and tender leaves, and eating 

 on an average two leaves a day the 

 young of one pair of moths consume 

 from ten to twelve hundred leaves, and 

 Fig. 597.— Venation of Halesidoia tcssel- as it is not uncommon to find from six 

 lata, cs, costal vein; sc, subcostal to eight nests on a single tree not less 

 vein: r, radial vciii; m, medial vein; ,, . c .u 11 



c, cubital vein; a, anal veins, (.\fter ^^^^ seventy-five thousand leaves are 

 Comstock; enlarged.) devoured, a loss which no tree can long 



endure." In about forty days the larvae 

 are ready to pupate, when they scatter from the nest, find sheltered places 

 under eaves, fence-rails, etc., and spin spindle-shaped cocoons of w-hite, 

 almost transparent silk, within which they change. After twenty to twenty- 

 five days of pupal life the winged moths issue and soon after lay their 

 eggs for next year's brood. /The life-history of the various other species 

 is similar to this although other trees are chosen for feeding-grounds. 



The lappet-moths, so-called from the curious lobes or lappets arranged 

 along the sides of their caterpillars, are of several species. Tolype velleda, 

 expanding li to i| inches, has a white body with a black spot and dusky- 

 gray wings crossed by white lines; its caterpillar feeds on the foliage of 

 apple-, cherry-, and plum-trees, and is hair-fringed and protectively colored so 

 that it looks much like an excrescence of the bark on which it habitually 

 lies when not feeding. Gastropacha americana (I'ig. 601), the .American 

 lappet-moth, expanding ij inches, is so like a dead leaf in appearance that 

 it can hardly be distinguished when at rest; it varies somewhat in color, 

 but most individuals are reddish brown with a broad interrupted whitish 

 band across both wings; the hinder and outer edges of the fore wings and 

 the outer edges of the hind w-ings are deeply notched. The caterpillar feeds 

 on apple, cherry, and oak, hiding during the day but becoming active at 

 night. It is broad, convex above and flat beneath, ash-gray with fringes 

 of blackish or gray hairs, and when at rest it is almost impossible to recognize. 



