ATTACKING THE LEAVES. 61 



body is raised up, and the fore legs stretched out. The 

 moths appear from the middle of June until the end of July. 



Each female deposits her stock of eggs in a single cluster 

 of from seventy to one hundred in number. They are white, 

 round, less than one-thirtieth of an inch in diameter, placed 

 side by side in nearly straight rows, and firmly cemented to 

 each other, as well as to the surface of the leaf on which they 

 are placed. Those first laid begin to hatch during the third 

 week in July, while others are three or four weeks later, so 

 that some broods are nearly full grown, while others are 

 small and but a few days old. 



The young larvae eat only the under side and pulpy part 

 of the leaves, leaving the veins and upper side untouched, but 

 as they increase in size and strength they devour the whole 

 of the leaf except the stem. When young they are brown, 

 striped with white, but as they mature they become darker 

 in color, with yellow stripes ;. they attain their full growth in 

 about five or six weeks, when they are about two inches long. 

 The head is large and black, the next segment, sometimes 

 called the neck, of a dull orange color, a black stripe ex- 

 tending down the back, and three stripes of the same color 

 alternating with four yellow stripes on each side. The body 

 is thinly clothed with long, soft, whitish hairs. The larvae 

 are invariably found clustered closely together on a limb, on 

 which, beginning with the tender leaves at the extremity, they 

 gradually devour all before them, leaving the branch per- 

 fectly bare. Its leafless condition soon attracts attention, and 

 on examination it is found to be loaded with these caterpil- 

 lars crowded together. The position they assume when at 

 rest is very odd, and is well shown in Fig. 55 ; both ex- 

 tremities are raised, the body being bent, and resting only 

 on the four middle pairs of legs. If touched or alarmed, 

 they throw up their heads and tails with a jerk, at the same 

 time bending the body until the two extremities almost meet 

 over the back ; they also jerk their heads from side to side. 

 They all eat together, crowded upon the under surface of 



