OF THE FARM AND GARDEK. 



153 



easily be distinguished from tlie buds, knots, or swellings 

 of the naked twigs. Each cluster consists of from two 

 to three hundred eggs, and is covered and protected from 

 the weather by a coating of glutinous matter, and the 

 same temperature which causes the apple-buds to swell 

 and burst, quickens the vital energies of these larvae and 

 causes them to eat their way out of their eggs. Very 

 often they hatch during a prematurely warm spell, and 

 before there is any green leaf for them to feed upon, but 

 they are so tough and hardy that they can fast for many 

 days with impunity, and the glutinous substance on the 

 outside of their eggs furnishes good sustenance and 

 gives them strength at 

 first. It is even as- 

 serted by Mr. H. 0. 

 Raymond, of Council 

 Bluffs, Iowa, that the 

 eggs often hatch in the 

 fall, and that in these ^^s- ioi.-apple-tree tent- 



' CATERPILLAB, MOTH. 



cases the larvae with- 

 stand the severity of the winter with impunity. 



The young caterpillars commence spinning the moment 

 they are born, and indeed they never move without ex- 

 tending their thread wherever they go. All the individ- 

 uals hatched from the same batch of eggs work together 

 in harmony, and each performs its share of building the 

 common tent, under which they shelter when not feed- 

 ing and during inclement weather. They usually feed 

 twice each day, namely, once in the forenoon and once in 

 the afternoon. After feeding for five or six weeks, 

 during which time they change their skins four times, 

 these caterpillars acquire their full growth, when they ap- 

 pear as at fig. 100 {a side view, b back view), the colors 

 being black, white, blue and rufous or reddish. They 

 then scatter in all directions in search of some cozy and 

 sheltered nook, such as the crevice or angle of the fence. 



