158 



IKJUEIOUS IIS^SECTS 



along roads, on the tops of fences, etc. , in search of a 

 suitable place to form its cocoon. It usually contents 

 itself with folding a leaf or drawing several together for 

 this purpose, though it frequently spins up under fence 

 boards and in other sheltered situations. The cocoon is 

 much like that of the common Tent-caterpillar, being 

 formed of a loose exterior covering of white silk with the 

 hairs of the larva interwoven, and by a more compact 

 oval inner pod that is made stifi by the meshes being 

 filled with a thin yellowish paste from the mouth of the 

 larva, which paste, when dried, gives the cocoon the ap- 

 pearance of being dusted with powdered sulphur. Three 

 days after the cocoon is completed the caterpillar casts 

 its skin for the last time and becomes a chrysalis of a red- 



dish-brown color, slightly dusted with a pale powder, and 

 densely clothed with short pale yellow hairs, which at 

 the blunt and rounded extremity are somewhat larger and 

 darker. In a couple of weeks more, or during the fore- 

 part of June, the moths commence to issue, and fly about 

 at night. This moth (fig. 102, 5, female), bears a consid- 

 erable resemblance to that of the Common Tent-caterpil- 

 lar (fig. 101), being of a brownish yellow or rusty brown, 

 and having two oblique transverse lines across the front 

 wings. It differs, however, in the color being paler or 

 more yellowish, especially on the thorax; in the space be- 

 tween the oblique lines being usually darker instead of 

 lighter than that on either side; but principally in the 

 oblique lines themselves being dark instead of light, and 

 in a transverse shade, often quite distinct, across the 

 hind wings. As in C, Americana, the male is smaller 



Fig. 103.— TENT-CATEKPILLAR OF THE FOREST. 



