72 COCOONS 



hairy, with bald patches of red on its back, and with long pen- 

 cils of hair at each end of its body. These caterpillars often 

 do great damage to shade and fruit trees by eating their leaves. 

 The trees are most easily protected from them by brushing the 

 cocoons from the limbs and burning them before the eggs 

 hatch. 



Woolly Bear Caterpillars. — A few kinds of caterpillars do 

 not change to pupas in the fall, but curl themselves up in some 

 protected spot for the winter and undergo their changes in the 

 next spring. Have you seen a brown-haired caterpillar hurry- 

 ing over the frozen ground or snow ? This is the woolly hear 

 caterj)illar. It will live through the winter, and change to 

 a gray moth in the spring. 



Spider Nests. — Sometimes you may find what you suppose 

 is a cocoon, and get from it a great nuinber of young spiders 

 instead of a moth. Some spider nests look like cocoons, but 

 they are usually made of softer and finer silk than cocoons, and 

 the eggs can often be seen inside. 



Silkworms. — The silk that is spun and woven into cloth 

 is made from the cocoon of the silkworm. The caterpillars 

 are kept in boxes and fed on mulberry leaves. Each cocoon is 

 made of a single thread that can be easily unwound. The silk 

 from the cocoon of any other kind of a caterpillar might be 

 used to make cloth if it could be unwound. 



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