Insect Study 



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with six spiny tubercles. Like all other caterpillars, it has to grow by 

 shedding its horny, skeleton skin, the soft skin beneath stretching to give 

 more room at first, then finally hardening and being shed in its turn. 

 This first molt of the cecropia caterpillar occurs about four days after it 

 is hatched, and the caterpillar which issues looks quite different than 



it did before; it is now dull orange or 

 yellow with black tubercles. After six 

 or seven days more of feeding, the skin is 

 again shed and now the caterpillar appears 

 with a yellow body; the two tubercles 

 on the top of each segment are now 

 larger and more noticeable. They are 

 blue on the first segment, large and 

 orange-red on the second and third seg- 

 ments, and greenish blue with blackish 

 spots and spines on all the other 

 segments except the eleventh, 

 which has on top, instead of a 

 pair of tubercles, one large, 

 yellow tubercle, ringed with 

 black. The tubercles along the 

 side of the insect are blue during 

 this stage. The next molt occurs 

 five or six days later; this time 

 the caterpillar is bluish green in 

 color, the large tubercles on the 

 second and third segments being 

 deep orange, those on the upper 

 part of the other segments yel- 

 low, except those on the first 

 and last segments, which are blue. All the other tubercles along 

 the sides are blue. After the fourth molt it appears as an enormous 

 caterpillar, often attaining the length of three inches, and is as 



large through as a man's thumb; its colors 

 are the same as in the preceding stage. 

 There is some variation in the colors of the 

 tubercles on the caterpillars during these 

 different molts; in the third 

 stage, it has been observed that 



The cecropia cocoon cut open, showing the pupa within it. 

 Photo by M. V. Slingerland. 



