160 HICKORY. LEAVES HICKORY TUSSOCK-MOTH. 



gular arrangement of the colors to the tufts and long pencils of 

 haii-s with which it is clothed, is the hickory tussock-moth. And 

 any one who is desirous of rearing an insect in order to inspect 

 the remarkable ehanges which it undergoes as it grows up to its 

 perfect state will succeed better with this, probably, than with 

 any other species. One or more of the caterpillars placed in a 

 tumbler or a box, and supplied with fresh leaves two or three 

 times a week, will require no further care. So hardy are they 

 that they will even feed upon leaves which are dry and brittle, 

 and their cocoons may be kept in a warm stove-room during the 

 winter wi thout the inclosed insect withering from the dryness of 

 the atmosphere. 



Although the hickory and walnut appear to be the trees of 

 which these caterpillars are most fond they are by no means 

 limited to them. Dr. Harris records his meeting with them upon 

 the ash and elm, and I have found colonies of the young worms 

 upon the butternut, the sumach and the slippery elm. They 

 hatch from the eggs early in July, and whilst young they re- 

 main together, a hundred or more in a company, all being pro- 

 bably from one parent. They occupy a leaf near the end of a 

 limb, forming for their residence a slight covering or tent made 

 of the fine silken threads which they spin. If the limb is jarred 

 most of them let themselves down from it by means of their 



threads, some dropping to the ground 

 others remaining suspended in the air at 

 different heights. They have their re- 

 gular periods for feeding and reposing. 

 They consume the whole of the leaves 

 where they reside, leaving only the mid- 

 veins and some small fragments of the 

 green tissue remaining. The annexed 

 figure is taken from a leaf partly con- 

 sumed by them. If when engaged in 

 feeding a fly or other insect annoys it, 

 or even if the rays of the sun shining 

 through the foliage happen to fall directly upon it, it moves away 

 to another place; and if when thus crawling away its hairs touch 



