CATERPILLARS 



feed and rest together in a huge common web, go 

 on the march in large numbers, sometimes in single 

 file, sometimes in broad ranks. In the Italian 

 Riviera one of the procession caterpillars makes a 

 great silken shelter on the branches of the Aleppo 

 pine, and often eats them quite bare, doing great 

 damage. They are checked a little by the larva 

 of a beautiful beetle which forces its way into the 

 silken nest and destroys the inmates. These pro- 

 cession larvse may be seen on the march in spring, 

 forming long lines on the road, the head of one 

 almost touching the tail of another. As they go 

 they sometimes secrete a composite thread, con- 

 tinuous to their headquarters on the tree. It has 

 been shown that they instinctively follow the 

 leader, and that he may give up his position in 

 favour of another. Schoolboys sometimes make a 

 circle of the procession, the head of the leader being 

 brought to touch the hind end of the last on the 

 file, and such a circle has been known to go on 

 circling for days a fine example of the difference 

 between intelligence and instinct. In their pro- 

 cession the caterpillars are seeking for a suitable 

 soft place in which to bury themselves for their 

 great change. When they find it, they mass 

 together, and move round and round paying out 

 silk and loosening the soft soil. In this way they 

 gradually sink below the ground, where they lie 

 dormant, slowly changing into moths which come 

 out in autumn. 



It may be noted that the loosely attached hairs 

 of the procession caterpillars are covered with 



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