218 CATERPILLARS AND THEIR MOTHS 



fined than others. They were not voracious eaters, 

 and usually finished one leaf before touching another. 



To find out their range of food-plants we suj^plied 

 apple, beach-plum, azalea, pear, wild-cherry, oak, wil- 

 low, maple, elm, and poplar, and they ate every kind, 

 though they did not like poplar as well as any other. 

 Bayberry they preferred, leaving every other leaf for 

 that. 



They fed for sixteen days after this last molt, grow- 

 ing more in this period than in any other, then turned 

 brown or yellowish and stopped eating. The next day 

 they began spinning their little cocoons, having been 

 fifty-three days in passing from egg to cocoon. 



The cocoons were half an inch long, tough, firm, 

 ovoid, very dark brown, generally smooth, but having 

 loose ends of silk which drew leaves together over the 

 cocoon and made it look ragged when the leaves were 

 pulled off. 



The moth is light brown, having on the fore wings a 

 spot — shaped like half the ace of sjDades — of deep 

 tan-brown, with a silver line around its rear edge, 

 which is the curved edge. The moths have no great 

 beauty, but their range is wide, and they lay their eggs 

 on so many kinds of trees that the caterpillars are 

 found very often. The moths fly by night, mating, 

 we are told by an entomologist who has bred many, 

 about nine o'clock. 



