TAILORING ANIMALS 



with the bagvvorni's in activity. The bagworm is the 

 caterpillar of a small moth that bears the formidable 

 name of Thijridopteryx ephemercvformis ! 



On the leafless branches of small trees, in winter or 

 early spring, one will sometimes see curious conical 

 pendants, no bigger than an almond, hanging from the 

 tips like the ornaments of a Christmas-tree. They are 

 lashed to twigs by silken loops, and are composed of 

 tough silk. Attached to the outside are tags of leaves 

 and stems, withered and brown, but, when first put on, 

 green like the summer foliage. These are the bag- 

 worm's cocoons, with their odd ornaments like the 

 dangles, loops, bows, pendants, rosettes, and other like 

 devices with which ladies trim their gowns and military 

 and diplomatic gentlemen decorate their dress -suits. 

 The bagworm begins life as a small, soft-bodied, hairless 

 larva, whose one manifest destiny is to eat its way to 

 the top or tip of the bush on which it lodges. It is not 

 confined to any one food-plant, but ranges miscellane- 

 ously among the trees. Thus nature has greatly eased 

 the insect's struggle for life. The young worm's first 

 act is to weave around itself a silken, caselike frock, 

 which is gradually enlarged and widened at the middle 

 as the creature grows. 



When the inmate wishes to feed, it loops its smock 

 to a leafy twig and begins to eat the foliage. Its table 

 postures are often odd enorugh, sometimes reminding 

 one of a squirrel eating a nut, sometimes of a child with 

 a napkin imder its chin eating a stick of asparagus. It 

 is perfect master of the situation. It can turn at will 

 within its bag, stretch forth its head to take surround- 

 ing leaves, or, if need be, cut itself loose and march away 

 a-foraging, with its bag and all its dangles on its back. 



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