OF SOCIABLE CATERPILLARS. 93 



enemies. And with the style of eastern magnificence, 

 they spin a soft carpeting over every part of the bark 

 of trees, where they may have occasion to tread in 

 search of food. They seldom feed in the parching 

 heat of noon day, but repose in their tent ; here, 

 also, they pass part of the middle of night. It, 

 however, seldom happens that they are all out at 

 one time. In this comfortable retreat they change 

 their skins, and to it they fly for refuge when alarmed. 

 Here, also, they spend the winter in a state of 

 torpor, emerging in spring, feeding again in society ; 

 but about the end of May, or beginning of June, they 

 disperse, and, eating for a month in solitude, change 

 their condition into a pupa. It is when these cater- 

 pillars finally abandon their nests that they are taken 

 possession of by spiders, which has given rise to 

 the popular, although erroneous belief, that they are 

 the parents of these larvae. 



The most remarkable of this tribe of insects 

 which live in imperfect societies, are those whose 

 caterpillars, upon certain occasions, preserve a parti- 

 cular line of march. Bonnet gives an interesting 

 account of the Phalaena (Bombyx) ncustria, whose 

 caterpillars are of that tribe which march rank entire. 

 They sometimes advance in straight lines, and at 

 others in curves of various inflection. They are of 

 a fiery colour, which gives them the appearance of a 

 cord of gold, extended on a silken fillet, of the most 

 immaculate whiteness. It is when travelling on this 

 carpet of silk, to feed on the leaves of their favourite 

 plants, that this appearance is exhibited. The 



