YOU who have been to the country, in the summer, and 

 who have kept your eyes alive to the surroundings, 

 have doubtless seen the Basket-worm feeding upon the 

 leaves of the quince, apple, peach, linden, and other decidu- 

 ous trees, as well as upon such evergreen as the arbor-vitse, 

 Norway spruce, and red cedar. In Germany these worms 

 are popularly designated Sack-trdger, or Sack-bearer, while 

 the mature insect is spoken of as the House-builder Moth. 

 Scientifically speaking, the latter is called Thyridopteryx 

 ephemerceformis, a name which is nearly twice the length of 

 the caterpillar it represents. 



During the winter the curious weather-beaten bags of 

 these worms may be observed hanging from the tree- 

 branches, apparently without a trace of the odd-looking creat- 

 ures that hung them there the autumn before. If a number 

 of these bags are gathered and cut open at this time, many 

 of them will be discovered to be empty, but the greater por- 

 tion will be found partly full of yellow eggs. Those which 

 do not contain eggs are male bags, and the empty chrysalis 

 of the male will be found protruding from the lower ex- 

 tremity. Upon close examination these eggs will be ob- 

 served to be obovate in form, soft and opaque, about one- 

 twentieth of an inch in length, and surrounded by more or 

 less fawn-colored silky down. If left to themselves, they 

 hatch sometime in May, or early in June. 



The young which come from these eggs are of a brown 

 color, very active in their movements, and begin at once to 

 make for themselves coverings of silk, to which they fasten 



