264 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



head and anal plate have a soft, bluish, velvety appearance, 

 and the hairs seem more dense. After undergoing a fourth 

 moult without material change in appearance, they acquire 

 their full growth in about six weeks from the time of first 

 feeding. At this stage of development, the larva appears 

 fully grown, and may be seen wandering singly over differ- 

 ent trees, along roads, or on the tops of fences, in search of 

 a suitable place to form its cocoon. It usually contents it- 

 self with folding a leaf or drawing several together for this 

 purpose, though it frequently spins up under fence boards 

 and in other sheltered situations. The cocoon is very much 

 like that of the common American Tent-caterpillar, being 

 formed of a loose exterior covering of white silk, with the 

 hairs of the larva interwoven, and by a more compact oval 

 inner pod that is made stiff by the meshes being filled 

 with a thin yellowish paste from the mouth of the larva, 

 which paste) when dried, gives the cocoon the appearance 

 of bemg dusted with powdered sulphur. Three days after 

 the cocoon is completed, the caterpillar casts its skin for 

 the last time, and becomes a chrysalis of a reddish-brown 

 color, slightly dusted with a pale powder, and densely 

 clothed with short, pale-yellow hairs, which at the blunt 

 and rounded extremity are somewhat larger and darker. 

 In a couple of weeks more, or during the forepart of June, 

 the moths commence to issue, and fly about at night. This 

 moth bears a considerable resemblance to that of the Amer- 

 ican Tent-caterpillar (Fig. 93, p. 250). 



From the very moment it is born till after the fourth or 

 last moult, this caterpillar spins a web, and lives more or 

 less in company ; but from the fact that this web is always 

 attached close to the branches and trunks of the trees in- 

 fested, it is often overlooked ; and several writers have er- 

 roneously declared that it does not spin. At each success- 

 ive moult, all the individuals of a batch collect and huddle 



