156 



IKJUEIOUS I^fSECTS 



in five masses ranging from three hundred and eighty to 

 four hundred and sixteen). Each of the eggs composing 

 this mass is of a cream-white color, 0.04 inch long and 

 0.025 inch wide, narrow and rounded at the attached end 

 or base, gradually enlarging towards the to]^, where it 

 becomes slightly smaller (fig. 102, d), and abruptly ter- 

 minates with a prominent circular rim on the outside, 

 and a sunken spot in the center (c). These eggs are de- 

 posited in circles, the female moth stationing herself, for 

 this purpose, in a transverse position across the twig. 

 With abdomen curved she gi-adually moves as the depo- 



Fig. 102. — TENT-CATERPLLLAK OF THE FOREST (CHsiocampa sylvatico). 

 a, Egg-mass ; b, Moth ; c, top of Egg ; d, Eggs. 



sition goes on, and when one circle is completed, she 

 commences another — and not before. With each egg is 

 secreted a brown varnish which firmly fastens it to the 

 twig and to its neighbor, and which, wpon becoming dry, 

 forms a net-work of brown over the pale egg-shell. 

 These eggs are so regularly laid and so closely glued to 

 each other, and the sides are often so appressed, that the 

 moth economizes space almost as effectually as does the 

 Honey-])ee in the formation of its hexagonal cells. 



The eggs are deposited, in the latitude of St. Louis, 

 during the latter part of June. The embryo develops 

 during the hot summer weather and the yet unborn larva 



