THE CATERPILLAR AND THE MOTH 



to live under trying circumstances she grants it some 

 safeguard against destruction. 



The web-spinning habit is one which, as we shall see, 

 these caterpillars will develop to a much greater extent 

 later in their lives, for our little acquaintances are young 

 tent caterpillars. They are found most often among 

 woodland trees, on the chokecherry and the wild black 

 cherry. But they commonly infest apple trees in the 

 orchards, and for this reason their species has been named 

 the apple-tree tent caterpillar, to distinguish it from 

 related forms. that do not com- 

 monly inhabit cultivated fruit 

 trees. The scientific name is 

 Malacosoma americana. 



The egg masses of the tent 

 caterpillar moths are not hard to 

 find at this season. They are 

 generally placed near the tips of 

 the twigs, which they appear to 

 surround, and being of the same 

 brownish color as the bark, they 

 look like swollen parts of the 

 twigs themselves (Plate 14A, 

 Fig. 144 A). Most of them are 

 five-eighths to seven-eighths of 

 an inch in length and almost half 

 of this in width, but they vary in 

 thickness with the diameter of 

 the twig. A closer inspection shows that the mass really 

 clasps the twig, or incloses it like a thick jacket lapped 

 clear around. In form the masses are usually sym- 

 metrical, tapering at each end, but some are of irregular 

 shapes, and those that have been placed at a forking or 

 against a bud have one end enlarged. 



The greater part of an egg mass consists of the cover- 

 ing material, which is a brittle, filmy substance like dry 

 mucilage. Some of it is often broken away, and some- 



[ 263 ] 



Fic. 143. Young tent cater- 

 pillars on the egg mass from 

 which they have just hatched. 

 (i,!-4 times natural size) 



