THE SALT-MARSH CATERPILLAR. 351 



It expands from one inch and a half to two inches. Its eggs 

 are of a golden-yellow color, and are laid in patches upon the 

 leaves of plants. In some parts of France, and in Belgium, 

 the people have been required by law to echeniller, or uncat- 

 erpillar, their gardens and orchards, and have been punished 

 by fine for the neglect of the duty. Although we have not 

 yet become so prudent and public-spirited as to enact similar 

 regulations, we might find it for our advantage to offer a 

 bounty for the destruction of caterpillars ; and though Ave 

 should pay for them by the quart, as we do for berries, Ave 

 should be gainers in the end, while the children whose idle 

 hours were occupied in the picking of them would find this a 

 profitable employment. 



The salt-marsh caterpillar (Fig. 169), an insect by far too 

 Avell known on our seaboard, and now getting to be common 

 in the interior of the _. nen 



tig. 169. 



State, whither it has 

 probably been intro- 

 duced, while under 

 the chrysalis form, 

 with the salt hay an- 

 nually carried from the coast by our inland farmers, closely 

 resembles the yelloAV bear in some of its varieties. The 

 history of this insect forms the subject of a communication 

 made by me to the Agricultural Society of Massachusetts, in 

 the year 1823, and printed in the seventh volume of the 

 " Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal," with 

 figures representing the insect in its different stages. At 

 various times and intervals since the beginning of the present 

 century, and probably before it also, the salt marshes about 

 Boston have been overrun and laid \A r aste by swarms of cater- 

 pillars. These appear towards the end of June, and grow 

 rapidly from that time till the first of August. During this 

 month they come to their full size, and begin to run, as the 

 phrase is, or retreat from the marshes, and disperse through 

 the adjacent uplands, often committing very extensive ravages 



