NATURE STUDY AND AGRICULTURE 



ous stages may be found at one time, and brought in for 

 study. Encourage the children to observe them on the 

 bushes at home. How many different colors do you find 

 on one worm? Are they all the same color? The ones 

 that are pale green with yellow near the end are the oldest 

 ones. Do the worms keep the hinder part of the body 

 straight or curled? Look at a number of different ones 

 when they are quiet on the leaves before deciding this. 

 How many feet has one ? To count them hold the leaf on 

 a level with your eye and look under the worm. The three 

 pointed pairs near the head are called true feet. The six 

 pairs in the middle and the one at the hinder end are called 

 prop feet. Do you remember how many feet the woolly 

 bear caterpillar, or tomato worm had? They had only 

 eight pairs. One way you can tell sawfly larvae from 

 butterfly or moth larvae is by the greater number of feet. 

 If you have some of the light green worms with the 

 yellow spots put them in a jar or box with plenty of fresh 

 leaves. Keep a piece of mosquito netting tied over the 

 top. In a few days the worms disappear. What do you 

 find in the bottom of the box under the leaves? Those 

 black objects are cocoons that were woven by the worms. 

 After three or four days cut one of the cocoons open. What 

 is on the inside? Instead of the worm this sleeping 

 mummy is a pupa. Leave the rest of the cocoons undis- 

 turbed. After ten days look in the box every day. Be 

 sure to keep the netting tied over the top. What do you 

 find in the box? These insects are the grown-up saw- 

 flies. Look at the cocoons for openings through which 

 they came out. They are now ready to lay their eggs on 

 the gooseberry leaves to produce a new crop of worms. 



