158 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



[6:6-Sept., 1910 



their place. Its silk is smooth and strong, exceedingly fine and 

 lustrous and very durable. From each cocoon is unwound 

 about eight hundred feet of unbroken silk. The caterpillar is 

 not so dainty in its choice of food as its Chinese relative, but 



POI.YI'IIKMUS CATKKIMLLAK, !• L'LLY UKOWN 



manufactures its fine raiment out of almost anything, feeding 

 freely on beech, birch, maple, chestnut, walnut, oak, elm, apple, 

 pear, wild cherry and many other trees. 



The Qgg is round and flat, like a lozenge; the flattened 



sides are white and the 

 edges brown. This brown 

 band has a white dash 

 across it in one place and 

 opposite to this a white 

 dot. The period between 

 laying and hatching 

 varies with the state of 

 the weather, being us- 

 ually from ten to fifteen 

 days. The eggs darken 

 before hatching and the 

 little caterpillars eat their 

 way out at the white dot 



POLYPHEMUS EGGS ENLARGED ^^^hc side. The WCC 



