THE TENT-CATERPILLAR. 



many places it may pay to 

 offer a small price per hun- 

 dred to encourage the chil- 

 dren to collect them. This 

 was tried in New Hampshire 

 and one case is recorded 

 where 8,250 egg masses, equi- 

 valent to 1,237,500 eggs, were 

 collected for $8.25. The lit- 

 tle caterpillars form in the 

 eggs in the summer but do 

 not hatch until the middle or 

 last of the following April. If 

 food is not yet plenty they 

 live for a few days upon the glue which 

 has been their winter bed-blanket, but 

 soon begin the construction of the well- 

 known nests. These are usually placed 

 in some crotch of twigs near the aban- 

 doned little honeycomb-like egg-band 

 and are formed by the threads of silk 

 which the caterpillars spin. As the 

 larvae grow and the nest becomes too 

 small another sheet of threads is spun, 

 so that the tent is really a succession of 

 nests one outside the other. These 

 white or yellowish masses of silk are 

 easily destroyed by burning on the tree 

 or by cutting off the twig and crushing 

 the nest. This should be done in the 

 evening or just before a storm when the 

 caterpillars have sought shelter. 



The caterpillars feed until late in May, 

 when, after four or five molts, they are 

 of the size and appearance shown in Fig. 

 1604. The body color is black, but a 

 prominent white stripe extends the full 

 length of the back. There are also 

 numerous shorter irregular white lines 

 and a row of oval, pale blue spots upon 

 each side ; while the entire body is 

 thinly covered with long yellowish hairs. 

 The caterpillars, especially when young, 

 can easily be killed by two or three 

 sprayings with some arsenical poison. 

 Several natural agencies serve to keep 



Fig. 1605. — Egg Masses of Apple-Tbee Tent- 

 Caterpillar. 



the caterpillars within limits : Some of 

 the ground beetles and the spiny soldier 

 bugs catch and eat the larvae ; several 

 species lay their eggs within the bodies 

 of the caterpillars and the little grubs 

 which hatch from them live upon the 

 caterpillars' life blood ; and a bacterial 

 disease frequently destroys large num- 

 bers. These friendly agencies are but 

 slightly under man's control ; but the 

 birds which prey upon the pest would 

 respond quickly and beneficently to 

 efforts tp protect and encourage them. 

 The principal birds feeding upon the 

 tent-caterpillar are the yellow-billed and 

 black-billed cuckoos and the black-cap- 

 ped chickadee, but others known to do 

 some service in this line are the Balti- 

 more oriole, red-eyed and warbling 

 vireo5, wren, chipping-sparrow, yellow 

 warbler and crow. 



The larvae crawl down the trunks of 

 the trees in late May, when they are 

 mature and are nearly two inches long, 

 and spin their cocoons on the trunks of 

 the trees where partially protected by 

 the rough bark, in the grass under the 

 trees, on and about the fences, and very 

 often about the eaves and window cas- 

 ings and along the sides of out build- 

 ings. These cocoons are quite conspi- 

 cuous even when placed singly ; but 



