610 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



apple arc the favorite food-plants and are often stripped of their 

 foliage year after year, but all of the common fruit trees are more 

 or less frequented, and when very abundant the common shade 

 trees are attacked and occasionally one is defoliated. The 

 little caterpillars from one egg-mass co-operate in spinning the 

 tent which furnishes them shelter at night and during cold or 

 wet weather. This is gradually enlarged with new layers, of silk, 

 the caterpillars living beneath the outer layers. The caterpil- 

 lars are grown in five 

 or six weeks, when they 

 become exceedingly 

 restless and wander 

 away from the nest 

 in search of suitable 

 places for spinning their 

 cocoons. The full- 

 grown caterpillar is 

 about 2 inches long, 

 deep black in color, 

 sparsely covered with 

 yellowish hairs, with a 

 white stripe down the 

 middle of the back. On 

 the side of each seg- 

 ment is an oval pale 

 blue spot with a broader 

 velvety black spot ad- 

 joining it in front, giv- 

 ing somewhat the effect 



FIG. 463. Tent caterpillars on web one- 

 half natural size. (Photo by Weed.) 



of an eye-spot. Having found a suitable place under loose 

 bark, in a fence, in the grass or rubbish beneath the" tree, 

 or in the shelter of some neighboring building, the caterpillar 

 settles down and proceeds to encase itself in a thin cocoon of 

 tough white silk, in which it transforms to the pupa. About 

 three weeks later the adult moth emerges from the pupa to o&n- 

 tinue the life cycle, there being but one generation a year...- { > 



