104 HABITS. 



on this one leaf until it is entirely devoured ; then 

 it betakes itself to the next leaf upon the twig, 

 and so on in succession until the stem is bare, by 

 which time it has reached maturity ; after it has 

 left the first leaf, however, it is by no means so 

 particular to commence feeding upon the tip, but 

 cuts large pieces anywhere and quite irregularly, 

 biting through the midrib as well as the rest of 

 the leaf, and retires to the stem of the twig to 

 digest its meal. 



This caterpillar, as well as many others, lives a 

 solitary life ; but there are those which are more 

 or less gregarious, and they belong for the most 

 part to the higher groups. Whenever the cater- 

 pillars are strictly gregarious, the eggs are invari- 

 ably laid in clusters ; there are, however, some 

 butterflies which lay their eggs in small clusters, 

 whose caterpillars are not properly gregarious ; 

 yet all such are closely related to others whose 

 caterpillars are gregarious, so that we find every 

 gradation from solitary to social. There are also 

 some caterpillars, like those of our Baltimore of 

 the swamps, which are gregarious in their early 

 life, but afterward part company. In such cases, 

 the caterpillar usually hibernates, and its social 

 life lasts throughout the autumn and winter, the 

 company dispersing at the renewal of activity in 

 the spring. Indeed, in almost all cases, the asso- 

 ciation is most conspicuous in early life, when the 



