The Wonderful Ways of Insects and Spiders [ 243 



Silk Manufacturers: A moth's life pattern is much like that of a 

 butterfly, except that the caterpillars of certain moths weave about 

 themselves a covering of silk which we call a "cocoon." Most 

 species of moth caterpillars, however, dispense with the cocoon. 

 When the "tomato worm" and the caterpillar of the sphinx moth, 

 for example, are fully grown, they burrow in the earth and there 

 become pupae. If you are digging around the base of a tree in the 

 late fall, you may discover such caterpillars. 



By way of contrast, there are moth caterpillars that may be 

 termed "American silkworms": They produce strong lustrous 

 silk rivaling the product of the Chinese silkworms. The American 

 silk never became a commercial success because these creatures 

 proved too difficult to breed in large numbers; in addition, the 

 labor involved in processing their silk was very costly. 



The native silkworms are the caterpillars of cecropia, pro- 

 methea, polyphemus, and luna moths. Even sharp-eyed explorers 

 are not likely to find these insects that have a knack of blending 

 perfectly with the leaves on which they rest and feed. 



The Woolly Bear Caterpillar Weather Prophet: Sooner or later 

 nearly every child in country surroundings encounters the woolly 

 bear caterpillar, which is conspicuous because of its thick coat 

 of hair. 



There are many kinds of woolly bears. One species is black 

 at the ends with a middle band of brown. According to popular 

 belief, you can forecast the weather by the size of this band. With 

 the arrival of the fall, if the band is wide that is, if it measures 

 half the body length or more on many woolly bears, a mild 

 winter is predicted. By the same token, if most woolly bears have 

 narrow bands, we are told that the coming season will be severe. 

 Scientists have not yet said the last word on the reliability of this 

 belief. 



You may often discover woolly bears along the roadside in the 

 bright fall sunshine. If you pick one up, it has the defensive 

 resource of rolling itself into a ball a trick that it also uses to 

 make itself less attractive to a hungry bird. 



