INSECTS 



the cooler inner chambers, where they remain hidden 

 from view. 



In the early part of the afternoon a light lunch is taken. 

 The usual hour is one o'clock, but there is no set time. 

 Occasionally the participants appear shortly after eleven, 

 sometimes at noon, and again not until two or three 

 o'clock, and rarely as late as four. As they assemble 

 on the roof of the tent they spin and weave again until 

 all are ready to proceed to the feeding grounds. This 

 meal lasts about an hour. When the caterpillars return 

 to the tent they do a little more spinning before they 

 retire for the afternoon siesta. Luncheon is not always 

 fully attended and is more popular with caterpillars in 

 the vounger stages, being dispensed with entirely, as we 

 shall see, in the last stage. 



Dinner, in the evening, is the principal meal of the 

 day, and again there is much variation in the time of 

 service. Daily observations made on five Connecticut 

 colonies from the 8th to the 26th of May gave six-thirty 

 p.m. as the earliest record for the start of the evening 

 feeding, and nine o'clock as the latest; but the dinner 

 hour is preceded by a great activity of the prospective 

 diners assembled on the outsides of the tents. Though 

 the energy of the tent caterpillars is never excessive, it 

 appears to reach its highest expression at this time. The 

 tent roots are covered with restless throngs, most of the 

 individuals busily occupied with the weaving of new web, 

 working apparently in desperate haste as if a certain task 

 had been set for them to finish before they should be 

 allowed to eat. Possibly, though, the stimulus comes 

 merely from a congestion of the silk reservoirs in their 

 bodies, and the spinning of the thread affords relief. 



The tent caterpillar does not weave its web in regular 

 loops of thread laid on by a methodical swinging of the 

 head from side to side, which is the method of most 

 caterpillars. It bends the entire body to one side, at- 



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