204 TENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



"caterpillar belts," as they were aptly called, brought in. 

 Many of the children worked faithfully, and when, in Feb- 

 ruary, the writer was called in to point the moral of the lesson, 



8,250 egg masses were shown as the result 

 of their endeavors. I doubt if the expen- 

 diture of $8.25 by a village improvement 

 society often does more good than was done 

 in this case. The caterpillars were de- 

 stroyed, the effect being easily noticeable 

 yy in the spring and early summer, while the 

 ^y^ boys and girls had a remarkable lesson in 

 nature study. 



Several complaints reached the station 

 during the summer concerning black spiny 

 caterpillars that fed in colonies on the elm 

 trees, often defoliating good sized branches. 

 Whenever specimens accompanied the com- 

 plaint, the insect proved to be the larvse 

 or caterpillars of the antiopa butterfly 

 (Euvanessa antiopa), a species which is 

 ' more or less abundant every season. These 



American Sn'rcater^^^^t^erflies are justly regarded as among the 

 pillar. most beautiful of our insects; the wings are 



a rich purplish black color with a creamy border running along 

 the outer margin. They may be found late in autumn or early 

 in spring flying by the roadside or in open glades in the 

 woods; and occasionally during the intervening months one 

 who looks beneath culverts or bridges, or in some loose pile 

 of boards, will come across one of these butterflies passing 

 the winter in a situation where it is exposed to the lowest 

 temperatures. If in cold weather such a butterfly be brought 

 into a warm room it will gradually become active. In spring 

 eggs are laid by the females in clusters upon the twigs of elm, 

 willow, and poplar trees, the eggs soon hatching into cater- 

 pillars that feed upon the foliage. The caterpillars remain 

 together more or less as a colony, so that their presence is 

 soon indicated by the bare twigs that they leave behind them. 

 When they become full grown, they seek shelter of some sort, 



Fig. n. 



