CATERPILLAR. 



CATERPILLAR. 



ing almost all kinds of herbaceous plants, with 

 equal relish, from the broad-leaved plantain at 

 the door-side, the peas, beans, and even the 

 flowers of the garden, and the corn and coarse 

 grasses of the fields, to the leaves of the vine, 

 the currant, and the gooseberry, which it does 

 not refuse when pressed by hunger. This 

 kind of caterpillar varies very much in its 

 colours ; it is perhaps most often of a pale 

 yellow or straw colour, with a black line along 

 each side of the body, and a transverse line of 

 the same colour between each of the segments 

 or rings, and is covered with long pale yellow 

 hairs. Others are often seen of a rusty or brown- 

 ish yellow colour, with the same black lines on 

 the sides and between the rings, and they are 

 clothed with foxy red or light brown hairs. 

 The head and ends of the feet are ochre-yellow, 

 and the under side of the body is blackish in 

 all the varieties. They are to be found of dif- 

 ferent ages and sizes from the first of June till 

 October. When fully grown they are about 

 two inches long, and then creep into some con- 

 venient place of shelter, make their cocoons, 

 in which they remain in the chrysalis state 

 during the winter, and are changed to moths in 

 the months of May or June following. Some 

 of the first broods of these caterpillars appear 

 to come to their growth early in summer, and 

 are transformed to moths by the end of July or 

 the beginning of August, at which time I have 

 repeatedly taken them in the winded >tate ; but 

 the greater part pass through their last change 

 in June. The moth is familiarly known by the 

 name of the white miller, and is often seen 

 about houses. Its scientific name is Arctia Vir- 

 f,itiir,i, and, as it nearly resembles the insects 

 commonly called ermine-moths in England, 

 we may give to it the name of the Virginia 

 ermine-moth. It is white, with a black point 

 on the middle of the fore-wings, and two black 

 dots on the hind-wings, one on the middle and 

 the other near the posterior angle, much more 

 jtlistinct on the under than on the upper side; 

 there is a row of black dots on the top of the 

 back, another on each side, and between these 

 a longitudinal deep yellow stripe ; the hips and 

 thighs of the fore-legs are also ochre-yellow. 

 It expands from one inch and a half to two 

 inches. Having been much troubled with the 

 voracious yellow bears in the little patch, (I 

 cannot call it a garden,) where a few beans, 

 and other vegetables, together with some 

 flowers, were cultivated, I required my children 

 to pick off the caterpillars from day to day and 

 crush them, and taught them not to spare 'the 

 pretty white millers,' which they frequently 

 found on the fences, or on the plants, laying 

 their golden yellow eggs, telling them that, 

 with every female which they should kill, the 

 eggs, from which hundreds "of yellow bears 

 would have hatched, would be destroyed. In 

 some parts of France, and in Belgium, the 

 people are required by law to echeniller, or un- 

 caterpillar, their gardens and orchards, and are 

 punished by fine if they neglect the duty. 

 Although we have not yet become so prudent 

 and public spirited as to enact similar regula- 

 tions, we might find it for our advantage to 

 offer a bounty for the destruction of caterpil- 

 lars ; and though we should pay for them by 



the quart, as we do for berries, we should be 

 gamers in the end; while the children, whose 

 idle hours were occupied in the picking of 

 them, would find this a profitable employment." 

 (Horn*.) 



" The salt-marsh caterpillar, an insect by far 

 too well known on our sea-board, and now 

 getting to be common in the interior of the 

 state, whither it has probably been introduced, 

 while under the chrysalis form, with the salt 

 hay annually carried from the coast by our in- 

 land farmers, closely resembles the yellow 

 bear in some of its varieties. The history of 

 this insect," says Dr. Harris, "forms the subject 

 of a communication made by me to the 'Agri- 

 cultural Society of Massachusetts,' in the year 

 1823, and printed in the seventh volume of the 

 'Massachusetts Ajjiicultural Repository and 

 Journal,' with figures representing. the insect 

 in its different stages. At various times and 

 intervals since the beginning of the present 

 century, and probably before it also, the salt 

 marshes about Boston have been overrun and 

 i;u 1 ua-te by swarms of caterpillars. These 

 appear towards 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 exten- 

 sive ravages in their pro-ivss. Corn-fields, 

 gardens, and even the rank weeds by the way- 

 side afford them temporary nourishment while 

 wandering in search of a place of security 

 from the tide and weather. They conceal 

 themselves in walls, under stones, in hay- 

 stacks and 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 which 

 form they remain till the following summer, 

 and are transformed to moths in the month of 

 June. In those cases where, from any cause, 

 the caterpillars, when arrived at maturity, have 

 j been unable to leave the marshes, they conceal 

 themselves 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 Massachusetts ; 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 ; for I have obtained the moths 

 between the 15th and 20th of May, and again 

 between the 1st and the 10th of August. Those 

 which were disclosed in May passed the winter 

 in the chrysalis form, while the moths which 

 appeared in August must have been produced 

 from caterpillars that had come to their growth, 

 and gone through all their transformations 

 during the same summer. This, however, in 

 Massachusetts, is not a common occurrence ; 

 for by far the greater part of these insects ap- 

 pear at one time, and require a year to com- 

 j plete their several changes. The full-grown ca- 

 I terpillar 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 

 2 A 277 



