222 CATERPILLARS AND THEIR MOTHS 



tips. The head was dark gray with whitish mouth- 

 parts. 



For twelve days they fed heartily, and grew to a 

 length of two inches. All had long, silky hair, varying 

 in color from white to silvery gray, then to dark Mal- 

 tese gray, the pencils being very dark gray with black 

 tips. The body seemed to be black, but only the ven- 

 ter could be seen, the hair was so dense. The props 

 had red tips. The caterpillars moved very fast. Those 

 eating sassafras grew faster and larger than those on 

 ash, and molted earlier in every instance. ! 



After this experience we often found torrefada cater- 

 pillars on trees and shrubs, and once on a student-lamp 

 in the parlor. Usually they were of the bright yellow 

 color, a real canary-yellow, with tan pencils having 

 black tips; but some were white, — all in the last stage, — 

 so the variety of color belongs to the last two stages 

 of larval life. They are very beautiful caterpillars, and 

 certainly gave us surprises in the course of their life. 



Twelve days after the fourth molt they began to 

 shed their long hairs, whole pencils coming off at once. 

 Then the bodies showed, black or green with a few 

 gray spots and short gray hairs. They were very rest- 

 less and crawled incessantly for a day, then rested on 

 the tin. Out of doors they go into the ground. 



In three days the pupae cast the larva-skin, coming 

 out bright green, with three lines of gray spots on the 

 abdomen, but growing shining mahogany-brown. They 

 were much larger at the head, tapering to a sharp point. 



The caterpillars were thirty-five days in passing 

 from Qgg to pupa, and the moths emerged the follow- 

 ing June. 



