THE LEPIDOPTERA 



263 



the feeding period the caterpillar crawls to any satisfactory place, usually the 

 underside of some limb or on the trunk, and there spins a few threads to hold its 



FIG. 267. Adults of the Gypsy Moth (Porthetria dispar L.) ; female on left; male on right. 

 Natural size. (From Britton, Fifth Kept. Ent. Conn. Agr. Exp. Sta. 1905.) 



body in place rather than for concealment or protection, and in this exceedingly 

 scanty cocoon it pupates (Fig. 268) and after a period of from a week to 17 or 

 18 days, the moth emerges. 



FIG. 268. Pupae and larvae of the Gypsy Moth, natural size. (From Britlon, Fifth Rept. 

 Ent. Conn. Agr. Exp. Sta. 1905.) 



The eggs are now laid in oval clusters throughly covered by buff hairs from 

 the abdomen of the moth, and each cluster may contain from four to five hundred. 

 There seems to be little choice where the clusters are placed, many being on the 



