CATERPILLAR. 



CATERPILLAR. 



1829 (page 402). "About the last of May 



and hc^innin^ of June, it is" he says, "seen 



fluttering over cabbage, radish, and turnip 



beds, and patches of mustard, for the purpose 



of depositing its eggs. These are fastened to 



the umlerM'ilfx of the leaves, and but seldom 



more than three or four are left upon one leaf. 



The eggs are yellowish, nearly pear-shaped, 



longitudinally ribbed, and are one fifteenth of 



an inch in length. They are hatched in a 



week or ten days after they are laid, and the 



caterpillars produced from them attain their 



full size when three weeks old, and then mea 



sure about one inch and a half in length. 



!' a pale green colour, they are not 



readily distinguished from the ribs of the 



leaves beneath which they live. They do not 



devour t!u- leaf at its edge, but begin indiscri- 



minately upon any part of ils under-side, 



i which they eat irregular holes. When 



avc completed the feeding stage, they 



quit the plants, and retire beneath palings, or 



the edges of stones, or into the interstices of 



walls, where they spin a little tuft of silk, entan- 



gle the horns of their hindmost feet in it, and then 



proceed to form a loop to sustain the forepart 



of the body in a horizontal or vertical position." 



The next day after attaching itself it casts 



off its caterpillar skin and becomes a chrysalis, 



sometimes of a pale green, and sometimes of a 



white colour, regularly and finely dotted with 



black. The chrysalis state lasts eleven days, 



at the expiration of which comes out the white- 



winged butterfly. The chrysalids produced 



from an autumnal brood of these insects sur- 



vive the winter, and the butterflies from them 



make their appearance in May or June. "In 



gardens or fields infested by the caterpillars, 



boards, placed horizontally an inch or two 



above the surface of the soil, will be resorted 



to by them when they are about to change to 



chrysalids, and here it will be easy to find, col- 



lect, and destroy them, either in the caterpillar 



or chrysalis state. The butterflies also may 



easily be taken by a large and deep bag-net of 



muslin, attached to a handle of five or six feet 



in length ; for they fly low and lazily, especially 



when busy in laying their eggs. In Europe 



the caterpillars of the white butterflies are 



eaten by the larger titmouse (Parus major), and 



probably our own titmouse or chickadee, with 



other insect-eating birds, will be found equally 



useful, if properly protected. 



" We have several kinds of small six-footed 

 butterflies, some of which are found, during 

 the greater part of summer in the fields and 

 around the edges of woods, flying low and fre- 

 quently alighting, and oftentimes collected to- 

 gether in little swarms on the flov/ers of the 

 clover, mint, and other sweet-scented plants." 

 The heads of the common hop are frequently 

 eaten by the small green and downy caterpil- 

 ars y: a very pretty little dusky brown butter- 

 fly, :: which Dr. Harris has given the name 

 of H^--vine Thecla (Thcda huniili). 



The" caterpillars of many of the four-footed 

 mtterflies are spiny, or have their backs armed 

 with numerous projecting points, beset all 

 around with small stiff hairs, and sometimes 

 long, hard, and sharp prickles disposed in 

 bunches. 

 274 



The poplar, the willow, and the elm are in. 

 fested with caterpillars in great numbers, pro- 

 duced by a butterfly called the Antiopa, the 

 wings of which are purplish brown above, 

 with a buff-yellow margin, near the inner side 

 of which there is a row of pale blue spots. 

 The wings of this Antiopa butterfly expand 

 from three to three and a half inches. It comes 

 out from its winter retreats with the first 

 warmth of spring, and maybe seen, even ia 

 Massachusetts, sporting in warm and sheltered 

 spots at the beginning of March, at which time 

 its wings look ragged and faded. Wilson, the 

 ornithologist, in his beautiful lines upon the 

 well known American harbinger of spring _ 

 the blue bird alludes to its coming: 



" When first the lone butterfly flits on the wing." 



The caterpillars of the Antk>pa butterfly are 

 black, minutely dotted with white, with a row 

 of eight dark, brick-red spots on the top of the 

 back. When fully grown they measure an 

 inch and three quarters in length, and appear 

 very formidable with their thorny armature, 

 doubtless intended to defend them from their 

 enemies. It was formerly supposed that they 

 were venomous, and capable of inflicting dan- 

 gerous wounds, and poplar trees about dwell- 

 ings have frequently been cut down from fear 

 of these worms. " This alarm was unfounded; 

 for although," says Dr. Harris, " there are some 

 caterpillars that have the power of inflicting 

 venomous wounds with their spines and hairs, 

 this is not the case with those of the Antiopa 

 butterfly. The only injury which can be laid 

 to their charge, is that of despoiling of their 

 foliage some of our most ornamental trees, and 

 this is enough to induce us to take all proper 

 measures for exterminating the insects, short 

 of destroying the trees that they infest. I have 

 sometimes seen them in such profusion on the 

 willow and elm, that the limbs bent under their 

 weight; and the long leafless branches which 

 they had stripped and deserted gave sufficient 

 proof of the voracity of these caterpillars. 

 The chrysalis is of a dark brown colour, with 

 large tawny spots around the tubercles on the 

 back. The butterflies come forth in eleven or 

 twelve days after the insects have entered upon 

 the chrysalis state, and this occurs in the be- 

 ginning oi July. A second brood of caterpil- 

 lars is produced in August, and they pass 

 through all their changes before winter." 



There is a species of caterpillar which 

 comes from a butterfly called the Semicolon 

 ( Vanessa interrogationis'). It lives on the Ame 

 rican elm and lime trees, and also on the hop- 

 vine; and on this last they sometimes so 

 abound as to destroy its produce. In the latter 

 part of August the hop-vine caterpillars attain 

 their full growth, and suspend themselves be- 

 neath the leaves and stems of the plant, and 

 change into chrysalids. " This fact," says Dr. 

 Harris, " affords a favourable opportunity for 

 destroying the insects in this their stationary 

 and helpless stage, at some loss, however, of 

 the produce of the vines, which, when the in- 

 sects have become chrysalids, should be cut 

 down, stripped of the fruit that is sufficiently 

 ripened, and then burnt. There is probably 

 an early brood of caterpillars in June or July 



