CATERPILLAR. 



CATERPILLAR. 



body, and of a lighter brown colour on the ! the caterpillars have multiplied to any extent; 

 sides. The hairs, like those of the other ! and, if the practice is followed generally, and 

 Arctias, grow in spreading clusters from 'warts, ; continued during several years in succession, 

 which are of a yellowish colour in this species, j it will do much towards exterminating hrs,' 

 The body, when stripped of the hairs, is yel- ' destructive insects. By the practice of late 



mowing, where the caterpillars abound, a 

 great loss in the crop will be sustained, im- 

 mense numbers of caterpillars and grasshop- 

 pers will be left to grow to maturity and 

 disperse upon the uplands, by which means 

 the evil will go on increasing from year to 

 year ; or they will be brought in with the hay 

 to perish in our barns and stacks, where there 

 dead bodies will prove offensive to the cattle, 

 and occasion a waste of fodder. To get rid 

 of 'the old fog* or stubble, which becomes 

 much thicker and longer in consequence of 

 early mowing, the marshes should be burnt 

 over in March. The roots of the grass \\-\\\ 

 not be injured by burning the stubble, on the 

 contrary, they will be fertilized by the ashes ; 

 while great numbers of young grasshoppers, 

 cocoons of caterpillars, and various kinds of 

 destructiye insects, with their eggs, concealed 

 in the stubble, will be destroyed by the fire. 

 In the province of New Brunswick, the bene- 

 fit arising from burning the stubble has long 

 been proved; and this practice is getting into 

 favour in New England. 



" The caterpillars of all the foregoing Arc- 

 tians (or harnessed moths) live almost entirely 

 upon herbaceous plants ; those which follow 

 (with one exception only), devour the leaves 

 of trees. Of the latter, the most common and 

 destructive are the little caterpillars known by 

 the name of fall web-worms, whose large webs, 

 sometimes extending over entire branches 

 with their leaves, may be seen on our native 

 elms, and also on apple and other fruit trees, 

 in the latter part of summer. The eggs, from 

 which these caterpillars proceed, are laid by 

 the parent moth in a cluster upon a leaf near 

 the extremity of a branch ; they are hatched 

 from the last of June till the middle of August, 

 some broods being early and others late, and 

 the young caterpillars immediately begin to 

 provide a shelter for themselves, by covering 

 the upper side qf the leaf with a web, which is 

 the result of the united labours of the whole 

 brood. They feed in company beneath this 

 web, devouring only the upper skin and pulpy 

 portion of the leaf, leaving the veins and lower 

 skin of the leaf untouched. As they increase 

 in size, they enlarge their web, carrying it 

 over the next lower leaves, all the upper and 

 pulpy parts of which are eaten in the same 

 way, and thus they continue to work down- 

 wards, till finally the web covers a large por- 

 tion of the branch, with its dry, brown, and 

 filmy foliage, reduced to this unseemly condi- 

 tion by these little spoilers. These caterpil- 

 lars, when fully grown, measure rather more 

 than one inch in length ; their bodies are more 

 slender than those of the other Arctians, and 

 are very thinly clothed with hairs of a grayish 

 colour, intermingled with a few which are 

 black. The general colour of the body is 



low, 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 cater- 

 pillars, when feeding on the marshes, are 

 sometimes overtaken by the tide, and wheii 

 escape becomes impossible, they roll them- 

 selves up in a circular form, as is common 

 with others of the tribe, and abandon them- 

 selves 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 wiurows with the 

 wash of the sea. After a little time most of 

 them recover from their half-drowned condi- 

 tion, and begin their depredations anew. In 

 this way these insects seem to have spread 

 from the places where they first appeared to 

 others at a considerable distance. Although 

 these insects do not seem ever entirely to have 

 disappeared from places where they have once 

 established themselves, they do not prevail 

 every year in the same overwhelming swarms ; 

 but their numbers are increased or lessened at 

 irregular periods, from causes which are not 

 well understood. These caterpillars are pro- 

 duced from eggs, which are laid by the moths 

 on the grass of the marshes about the middle 

 of June, and are hatched in seven or eight days 

 afterwards, and the number of eggs deposited 

 by a single female is, on an average, about 

 eight hundred. The moths themselves vary in 

 colour. In the males, the thorax and upper 

 side of the fore-wings are generally white, the 

 latter spotted with black; the hind-wings and 

 abdomen, except the tail, deep ochre-yellow, 

 the former with a few black spots near the 

 hind margin, and the abdomen with a row of 

 six black spots on the top of the back, two 

 rows on the sides, and one on the belly ; the 

 under-side of all the wings and the thighs are 

 deep yellow. It expands from one inch and 

 seven-eighths to two inches and a quarter. The 

 female differs from the male either in having 

 the hind wings white, instead of ochre-yellow, 

 or in having all the wings ashen gray with the 

 usual black spots. It expands two inches and 

 three-eighths or more. Sometimes, though 

 rarely, male moths occur with the fore-wings 

 ash-coloured or dusky. Professor Peck called 

 this moth pseuderminea, that is, false ermine, 

 and this name was adopted by me in my com- 

 munication to 

 (Harris.) 



the 'Agricultural Society.'" 



In order to lessen the ravages of the salt- 

 marsh caterpillars, and to secure a fair crop 

 of hay when these insects abound, Dr. Harris 

 recommends that " the marshes should be 

 mowed early in July, at which time the cater- 

 >illars are small and feeble, and being unable 



1 

 wander fur, will die before the crop is ga-j greenish yellow dotted with black; there is a 

 ered in. In defence of early mowing, it may j broad blackish stripe along the top of the 

 be said that it is the only way by which the j back, and a bright yellow stripe on each side, 

 grass may be saved in those meadoAvs where j The warts, from which the thin bundles of 

 278 



