THE CATERPILLAR AND THE MOTH 



many had given up and had gone back to the tent, but the 

 rest continued the hopeless search. At seven-thirty a few 

 bold explorers had discovered some remnants of water 

 sprouts at the base of the tree and fed there till ten o'clock. 

 At eleven all were back in the tent. 



At two o'clock in the afternoon the crowd was out again 

 and a mass meeting was being held at the base of the tree. 

 But nobody seemed to have any idea of what to do, and no 

 leader rose to the occasion. A few cautious scouts were 

 making investigations over the ground to the extent of a 

 foot or a little more from the base of the trunk, but, though 

 there were small apple trees on three sides five feet away, 

 only one small caterpillar ventured off toward one of 

 these. He, however, missed the mark by twelve inches 

 and continued onward; but probably chance eventually 

 rewarded him. At three p.m. the meeting broke up, 

 and the members went home. They were not seen again 

 that evening or the next morning. 



During this day, the 21st, and the next, an occasional 

 caterpillar came out of the tent but soon returned, and it 

 was not till the evening of the 22nd that a large number 

 appeared. These once more explored the naked branches 

 and traveled up and down the new paths on the trunk, but 

 none was observed to leave the tree. On the 23rd and 

 24th no caterpillars were seen. On the 25th the tent was 

 opened and only two small individuals were found within 

 it. Each of these was weak and flabby, its alimentary 

 canal completely empty. But what had become of the 

 rest? Probably they had wandered off unobserved one 

 by one. Certainly there had been no organized migra- 

 tion. Solitary caterpillars were subsequently found on a 

 dozen or more small apple trees in the immediate vicinity. 

 It is likely that most of these had molted and had gone 

 into the last stage, since their time was ripe, but this was 

 not determined. 



After the caterpillars go over into their last stage, the 

 tents are neglected and rapidly fall into a state of dilapida- 



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