When the latter are reached, each caterpillar begins feeding 

 upon the succulent green portions of the leaf. The young cat- 

 erpillars are about one-sixth of an inch long, and thickly cov- 

 ered on the back and sides with dark brown hairs. At the end 

 of a week the larvae, as these caterpillars are often called, shed 

 their skins, crawling out clothed in a new covering previously 

 formed beneath the old one. They continue feeding soon after 

 this first molt, and a week or two later again shed their skins 

 to provide for their increase in size. After another period of 

 feeding a third molt takes place ; the caterpillars have by this 

 time become about an inch long, and are handsome creatures. 



Fig. 1. — Caterpillar of Tussock Moth. (After Riley.) 



The general color is yellow : the head and two tubercle- 

 like projections on the hinder portion of the back are bright 

 coral red ; there are four cream colored tufts of hair along the 

 back. Two long black plumes project forward from just be- 

 hind the sides of the head, and another projects backward from 

 the posterior end of the body. Along each side of the back 

 there runs a distinct yellow line ; and lower down the sides 

 there is another yellow line, generally less distinct. 



About a week after the third molt a large proportion of the 

 caterpillars desert the leaves and seek the rough bark of the 

 trunk, where they spin loose, brownish, silken cocoons, within 

 which they transform to the pupa or chrysalis stage. These 

 are the caterpillars which are to develop into male moths. The 

 other caterpillars remain upon the leaves, feeding freely and 

 undergoing one or two additional molts as larvae before spinning 

 cocoons. They finally spin up, however, in situations similar to 

 those selected by the males and change into brown chrysalids. 

 When full grown they are much larger than were the fully 



