INSECTS. 99 



THE SALT-MARSH CATERPILLAR, an insect by far too well kncwn 

 on our sea-board, and now getting to be common in the interior, 

 closely resembles the yellow bear in some of its varieties. These 

 appear toward the end of June, and grow rapidly from that time 

 till the first of August. During this month they come to their full 

 size, and begin to run, as the phrase is, or retreat from the marshes, 

 and disperse through the adjacent uplands, often committing very 

 extensive ravages in their progress. Corn-fields, gardens, and even 

 the rank weeds by the way-side afford them temporary nourish- 

 ment while wandering in search of a place of security from the tide 

 and weather. They conceal themselves in walls, under stones, in 

 hay-stacks anc 1 mows, in wood-piles, and in any other places in their 

 way, which will afford them the proper degree of shelter during 

 the winter. Here they make their coarse hairy cocoons, and change 

 to chrysalids, in whHi form they remain till the folio wing summer, 

 and are transformed to moths in the month of June. In those 

 cases where, from any cause, the caterpillars, when arrived at ma- 

 turity, have been unable to leave the marshes, they conceal them- 

 selves beneath the stubble, and there make their cocoons. Such, 

 for the most part, is the course and duration of the lives of these 

 insects in the Northern States ; but in the Middle and Southern 

 States two broods are brought to perfection annually ; and even 

 here some of them run through their course sooner, and produce a 

 second brood of caterpillars in the same season. The full-grown 

 caterpillar measures one inch and three quarters or more in length. 

 It is clothed with long hairs, which are sometimes black and some- 

 times brown on the back and forepart of the body, and of a lighter 

 brown color on the sides. The hairs grow in spreading clusters 

 from warts, which are of a yellowish color in this species. The 

 body, when stripped of the hairs, is yellow, shaded at the sides 

 with black, and there is a blackish line extending along the top of 

 the back. The breathing-holes are white, and very distinct even 

 through the hairs. These caterpillars, when feeding on the marshes, 

 are sometimes overtaken by the tide, and when escape becomes im 

 possible, they roll themselves up in a circular form, and abandon 

 themselves to their fate. The hairs on their bodies seem to have a 

 repelling power, and prevent the water from wetting their skins, so 

 that they float on the surface, and are often carried by the waves 

 to distant places, where they are thrown on shore, and left in win- 

 rows with the wash of the sea. After a little time most of them 

 tecover from their half-drowned condition, and begin their depre- 



