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 alons: 

 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 stale 

 during tin. 1 winter, and are changed to moths in 

 the iiii'iirhs o! .Mayor June following. Some 

 of the first broods of these caterpillars appear 

 to come to their growth early in summer, ami 

 are transformed to moths by the etui of July or 



Mining of August, at which time I have, 

 repeatedly taken them in the winded .slat*- ; hut 



.. i part pass thnuiu'h their last change 

 in June. The moth is familiarly known by the 

 name of the white miller, and is oft' 

 about houses. Its scientific name is dn-t ia l'ir- 



.iid, as it nearly resembles the in-ects 

 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, o-ie on the middle and 

 the other near the posterior angle, much mure 

 distinct on the under than on the upp< 

 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, j 

 with every female which they should kill, the 

 eggs, from which hundreds "of yellow bears j 

 would have hatched, would be destroyed. In 

 some parts of France, and in Belgium, the 

 people are required by law to c.cheniller, 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- 

 ars ; and though we should pay for them by 



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

 gainers in the end; while the children, whose 

 idle hours were occupied in the picking of 

 them, would find this a profitable employment." 

 (jHarruO 



" 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 

 hear 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 Agricultural 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 

 laid waste 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 

 tYuiu the marshes, ami disperse through the 

 adjacent uplands, ot'ten committing very exten- 

 sive ravages in their progress. 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 th'-ir 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 

 been unable to leave the marshes, they conceal 

 themselves neath the stubble, and there 

 make their cov x>ns. Such, for the most part, 

 is the course aj.il 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 passe'l 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- 

 plete their several changes. The full-grown ca 

 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 27^ 



