THE AMERICAN SILKWORMS 265 



Eggs. — The moth which issues from the cocoon in the spring lays 

 its eggs upon the young leaves of the tree on which the caterpillar 

 is to feed. The eggs are cream white, and are laid in small clusters 

 of short rows, sometimes on the lower and sometimes on the upper 

 sides of the leaves. Just before hatching the eggs turn grayish; 

 they hatch fropn ten to fifteen days after they are laid, but the 

 hatching may be retarded by cold weather. 



Caterpillar.— When the caterpillar hatches frc«n the egg it is 

 about a quarter of an inch long and is black; each segment is 

 ornamented with six spiny tubercles. Like all other caterpillars, 



Cecropia caterpillars fully grown. 



it has to grow by shedding its homy, skeleton skin, the soft skin 

 beneath stretching to give more room at first, then finally hardening 

 and being shed in its turn; this shedding of the skin is called molt- 

 ing. The first molt of the cecropia caterpillar occurs about 

 four days after it is hatched, and the caterpillar which issues 

 looks quite differently than it did before; it is now dvill orange or 

 yellow with black tubercles. After six or seven days more of feed- 

 ing, the skin is again shed and now the caterpillar appears with a 

 yellow body; the two tubercles on the top of each segment are 

 now larger and more noticeable. They are blue on the first 

 segment, large and orange-red on the second and third segments, 

 and greenish blue with blackish spots and spines on all the other 

 segments except the eleventh, which has on top, one large, yellow 

 tubercle ringed with black, instead of a pair of tubercles. The 



