INSECTS 



struction of a tent, but the early days are not always spent 

 alike, even under similar circumstances, nor is the tent 

 always begun in the same manner. 



In the State of Connecticut, where the season for both 

 plants and insects is much later than in the latitude of 

 Washington, three broods of tent caterpillars were ob- 

 served hatching on April 8 of the same year. These 

 caterpillars also met with dull and chilly weather that 

 kept them huddled on their egg coverings for several 

 days. After four days the temperature moderated suffi- 

 ciently to allow the caterpillars to move about a little on 

 the twigs, but none was seen feeding till the 14th — six 



days after the hatching. 

 Yet they had increased 

 in size to about one- 

 eighth of an inch in 

 length. 



Wherever these cater- 

 pillars camped in their 

 wanderings over the small 

 apple trees they inhabit- 

 ed, they spun a carpet 

 of silk to rest upon, and 

 there the whole family 

 collected in such a 

 crowded mass that it 

 looked like a round, furry 

 mat (Fig. 146). The car- 

 pets afforded the cater- 

 pillars a much safer bed 

 than the bare, wet bark 

 of the tree, for if the 

 sleepers should become 

 stupefied by cold the claws of their feet would mechanically 

 hold them fast to the silk during the period of their help- 

 lessness. The test came on the 1 6th and the night fol- 

 lowing, when the campers were soaked by hard, cold rains 



[268 1 



Fig. 146. Young tent caterpillars matted 



on a flat sheet of web spun in the crotch 



between two branches. (About natural 



size) 



