ATTACKING THE LEAVES. 



77 



The duration of the egg-state is usually from a week to ten 

 days, when the young larva eats its way out, making its first 

 meal of the empty egg-shell. At first it is black, with little 

 shining black knobs on its body, from whicfi arise hairs of 

 the same color. With a ravenous appetite, its growth is very 

 rapid, and from time to time its exterior coat or skin becomes 

 too tight for its comfort, when it is ruptured and thrown off. 

 At each of these changes or moultings the caterpillar appears 

 in an altered garb, until finally it assumes the appearance 

 represented in Fig. 72. It is a gigantic creature, from three 



Fig. 72. 



to four inches long, and nearly as thick as a man's thumb ; 

 its color is pale green ; the large warts or tubercles on the 

 third and fourth segments are coral-red, the others on the 

 back are yellow, except those on the second and terminal 

 segments, which, in common with the smaller tubercles along 

 the side, are blue. During its growth from the diminutive 

 creature as it escapes from the o^gg to the monstrous-looking 

 full-grown specimen, it consumes an immense amount of vege- 

 table food; and especially as it approaches maturity is this 

 voracious appetite apparent. Where one or two have been 

 placed on a young apple-tree, they may in a short time strip 

 it entirely bare; the loss of foliage during the growing period 



