128 Bugs, Butterflies, and Beetles 



ISABELLA TIGER MOTH 



The Isabella miller (Fig. 124) is a dull yellow 

 with a few black dots on the wings, but every boy 

 knows the caterpillar (Fig. 123). It is the lively 

 crawler, colored black fore and aft, and reddish 

 brown amidships, and is thickly covered with a lot 

 of evenly clipped stiff hair. I discover to my 

 sorrow that in confinement this caterpillar will eat 

 up other more tender caterpillars, although I never 

 knew it to eat caterpillars protected, like itself, with 

 a thick coat of hair. 



When cold weather approaches it hides away 

 under boards, sticks and stones, where it remains 

 sleeping until the next spring. In April or May 

 it makes itself a covering, using the hair of its own 

 body to weave into this dark oval-shaped cocoon 

 (Fig. 125). The moths come out in June and 

 July. The wings of the moth expand sometimes 

 as much as two and three-eighths inches. This mil- 

 ler finds a place in this book because every boy 

 knows the caterpillar and is naturally anxious to 

 know what kind of a moth it produces. 



