244 ] The Wonderful Ways of Insects and Spiders 



Woolly Bears As Pets: If your child brings home a woolly bear for 

 a pet, it must be kept out-of-doors in a sheltering wooden box at 

 ordinary temperatures. Keeping the creature in a warm room is 

 likely to prove fatal to it. During late summer it feeds on grass, 

 clover, and other leaves; with the onset of fall it has reached its 

 full growth and requires little in the way of food. 



After sleeping the winter away, the woolly bear rouses in the 

 spring, eats a little grass, and then starts to spin its cocoon, weav- 

 ing into it the hairs from its "fur coat." The finished cocoon 

 gives the appearance of being made of felt. About the end of 

 May an Isabella tiger moth appears. As the moth flies only at 

 night, you are less likely to become familiar with it than with 

 the woolly bear. It is a dull gray and tawny moth with a few black 

 dots on its wings. 



CATERPILLARS As A HOBBY 



Where To Look For Caterpillars: The woolly bear is not the only 

 caterpillar that makes an interesting captive. Other larvae of 

 moths that you are likely to find are the leaf-colored polyphemus 

 (often on oak and birch trees), and the colorful cecropia cater- 

 pillar, green with bluish tint and marked with yellow, blue, and 

 red. 



Collecting butterfly caterpillars is simple if you know the right 

 hunting grounds. Tiger swallowtail caterpillars are most com- 

 monly found on wild cherry trees; cabbage butterfly caterpillars 

 on cabbage; monarchs on milkweed plants; and viceroys on poplar 

 and willow trees. In hunting caterpillars it is not only helpful 

 to know the plants on which they feed; it is also advisable to take 

 some of the leaves to feed your captives their favorite food. 



Providing Living Quarters: You can make a home for caterpillars 

 from a shoe box or a small wooden box or any other kind of box 

 of convenient size. If any of your captives are the kind that change 

 into a chrysalis in the earth rather than on foliage, it would be 

 wise to put a pot of dirt in the box. 



You can keep leafy twigs fresh by placing them in water in 

 the box, but you need a cloth or some other covering over the 

 top of the water container otherwise the caterpillars might crawl 



