APPLE-TREN CATERPILLAR ITS COCOON AND CHRYSALIS. 195 



windows and doors. They still prefer the cherry and apple to 

 all other food. One season on looking through an orchard of 

 young apple trees at this time, I was surprised to find some of 

 these caterpillars upon almost every tree. They must have come 

 from considerable distances, as every nest in the orchard and its 

 vicinity had been destroyed two or three weeks before. 



It is for the purpose of finding secure retreats in which to form 

 their cocoons that the caterpillars thus disperse themselves. The 

 cocoons are mostly spun about the end of the first week in June. 

 They are placed commonly in a horizontal position, in crevices 

 in the rough bark of trees, on the lower edges of boards where 

 they are nailed to the posts of fences, on the under sides of rails, 

 in the corners at the lower side of clapboards of buildings, be- 

 neath the cornices, and in a variety of similar situations where 

 they will be sheltered from the rain. They are held in their 

 places by numerous loose crinkled threads on their outer sur- 

 face. 



The cocoons are oval, white or pale yellow, hardly an inch 

 long and 0.40 in diameter. They are rather 

 ...f; ^"2^ loosely woven, and so thin that the inclosed 

 insect may be discerned through their sides. 

 Their meshes, however, are filled with a kind of thin paste, 

 which when dry crumbles to a fine powder resembling sulphur, 

 which sifts from the cocoons when they are handled. The loose 

 texture of the cocoon enables the moth when hatched to crowd 

 itself out through one end of it, forming a large round opening 

 therein, and giving to this end afterwards the blunt appearance 

 shown on the left end of the above figure. The moth also dis- 

 charges a colored fluid which wets and softens this end of the 

 cocoon and thus facilitates the operation of working a hole 

 through it; and this fluid also stains the orifice to a greater or 

 less extent, making it a light tawny yellow color. 



The chrysalis which lies within this cocoon is variable in its 

 size, measuring 0.65 to 080 in length and about 0.28 

 in thickness. The accompanying figure will give the 

 reader an idea of its appearance. Its surface is densely 

 covered with fine short erect hairs, except upon the head and 

 the sheaths in which the wings, legs and antennae are inclosed. 



