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The eggs {a, Fig. 12) are laid in clusters, fastened firmly around the small twigs of vari- 

 ous sorts of trees, the number in each cluster 

 being usually from three to four hundred. 

 These are placed in position by the moth dur- 

 ing the summer, and remain in this condition 

 over the winter, and until the following spring. 

 The young caterpillars hatch about the time of 

 the bursting of the buds, and- while small they 

 spin a slight web or tent against the side of the 

 trunk or branches of the tree on which they 

 are placed. In this early stage they often have 

 strange processionary habits ; marching about 

 in single or double column, one larva so im- 

 mediately following another, that when cross- 

 ing a sidewalk, or other smooth surface, they 

 appear at a little distance like black streaks, or pieces of black cord stretched across. 

 They grow rapidly, and in about six weeks attain their full size, when 

 they are an inch and a half or more in length, (see Fig. 13), of a pale 

 bluish colour, sprinkled all over with black points and dots. On the 

 back is a row of ten or eleven oval or diamond shaped white spots, and 

 on the sides, pale yellowish stripes, somewhat broken and mixed with 

 grey. When about half grown or more, which occurs during the 

 latter part of May, they are extremely voracious, and sometimes swarm 

 to such an extent as to completely defoliate large patches of wooded 

 land, and thus compelling the trees to start a fresh growth of leaves 

 at a critical time during the hot weather, which injures them. 



When the caterpillar is full grown it spins a cocoon usually with- 

 in the shelter of a leaf, the edges of which are partially drawn to- 

 gether. The cocoon is whitish-yellow, oval in form, and closely spvin 

 with silk intermixed with a pasty substance, which, when dry, 

 becomes powdery, and resembles sulphur in appearance. This cocoon is 

 surrounded by an outer web of silk, loosely woven, and slight in texture. 



The moths (see Fig. 12 h), which appear early in July, are of a pale dull-reddish or 

 yellowish-brown colour, crossed by two oblique parallel lines, which are darker than the 

 rest of the wing. When the wings are spread the male measures about an inch, the 

 female nearly an inch an a half across. After pairing, the female deposits her eggs in 

 the manner already referred to, and shortly after dies. 



The Luna Moth — Actias lutia. 



The larva of this magnificent moth feeds 

 on hickory, walnut, butternut, and some- 

 times on beech and oak, and is shown in 

 Fig. 14. It is, when full grown, about three 

 inches long, of a clear bluish-green colour, 

 with a pearly head, and a very pale yellow 

 stripe along each side of the body ; the back 

 is crossed between the rings by transverse 

 lines of the same colour. Each segment is 

 adorned with small pearly warts, five or six in 

 number, each furnished with a few short hairs. 



When the caterpillar is full grown it 

 draws together two or three leaves of the 

 tree on which it has fed, and within this 

 hollow spins an oval, close and strong cocoon 

 of whitish silk, within which it changes to a 

 brown chrysalis. 



Fig. 14. 



