208 THE IDYL OF THE SPLIT-BAMBOO 



results to the cocoon-hunter, not necessarily because 

 there are more cocoons, but because the cocoons are 

 more in view and closer together on account of there 

 being fewer trees and shrubs to attract the female 

 moth as it lays its eggs. Almost the best place of 

 all is a field with numerous scattered clumps of wil- 

 low, maple, spice-bush, or alder; these usually are 

 small and accessible. The adult moth, on its egg- 

 laying mission, seems to find dense vegetation a 

 hindrance and hence avoids it. 



The caterpillars probably do not stay many feet 

 from the spot where they hatched from the egg; 

 indeed, the worm may pass all stages of its life- 

 history and spin its cocoon on a single shrub. Some- 

 times such unpromising spots as backyards are well 

 worthy of search. The egg-laying function of the 

 moth is compulsive and the eggs must be laid wher- 

 ever the parent may chance to be at the proper time 

 of depositing them. It has from two hundred to 

 six or eight hundred eggs to dispose of in a compara- 

 tively short time, and cannot afford to be too nice 

 as to the character of the place where it deposits 

 them. 



The American silkworm caterpillars have various 

 parasitical enemies, particularly varieties of the 

 ichneumon-flies. The adult parasite lays its eggs 

 on the body of the caterpillar; there hatch out and 

 the tiny worms proceed to eat their way into the body 

 of their host, which soon may die. Or the cater- 



