THE INSECT WORLD. 



281 



certain small fruits. It is green, and has six rather prominent 

 warts on the thoracic segments, of which four are coral-red in 

 color and the hinder two are yellow, sometimes with a reddish 

 tinge. On the rest of the body are other tubercles which are 

 furnished with little clusters of spurs and spines. The cocoon is 

 sometimes spun in bushes, attached to a twig, sometimes at an 

 angle of a fence, or wherever the caterpillar happens to consider 

 it convenient. The resulting moth is dusky brown and powdery. 



Fig. 309. 



Caterpillar of the cecropia moth. 



the hinder margins clay-colored, a kidney-shaped dull-red spot 

 with a white centre and a narrow black edging is near the 

 middle of each wing, and beyond the spot is a wavy dull- red 

 band, bordered internally with white. The primaries near the 

 base are dull red, and near the tip is an eye-like black spot within 

 a bluish-white crescent. Several other species occur, all more 

 or less resembling in general appearance the cecropia, and spin- 

 ning much the same kind of cocoon. 



Of a somewhat different type is the polyphemus, Telea poly- 

 phemus^ which has a green caterpillar without prominent tuber- 

 cles, but with little, black, wart-like processes, giving rise to 

 small, stiff bristles. This feeds upon oak and a variety of other 

 trees, but is rarely abundant, and when forming its cocoon spins 

 up in a leaf, which later drops to the ground. This cocoon is 

 oval in shape and completely closed, differing from that of 

 cecropia and its nearest allies, in which it is open at one end. 



