10 



tion. Should the supply of food, however, prove insufficient for the brood of larvse, 

 or not be conveniently at hand, they feed upon the varnish like substance for some 

 time, and thus escape any danger of perishing by hunger. Next to satisfying their appe- 

 tites, their chief occupation consists in constructing a shelter for themselves, by stretching 

 masses of web across some fork of the tree near their place of birth. As they increase 

 in size, they keep adding to this web, until it forms a large and conspicuous " tent," 

 capable of containing the whole brood, and with room enough to permit of passage through 

 from one part to another. Here they retire in bad weather and when not feeding ; when- 

 ever they go out, they always proceed along the upper side of the branches and emit a 

 silken thread as they go, which serves as a clue to guide them back to their abode. The 

 principal thoroughfares to and from the Cl tent," soon become covered with a mass of these 

 threads which thus form smooth silken roads for the creatures, to travel upon. 



They continue in the caterpillar state for five or six weeks, feeding voraciously all the 

 time, and very often stripping entire boughs of their foliage ; indeed, where they have 

 been suffered to go on without molestation, they have been known to strip whole orchards 

 of their leaves, rendering them as bare as in mid winter. After arriving at maturity, 

 they leave the trees and crawl about in all directions to find secluded spots in which to 

 form their cocoons ; the crevices of fences, sheltered angles of buildings, loose bark of old 

 trees, and neglected rubbish on the ground are favorite localities. The coooon (Fig. 18, d) 

 is formed of a double web, the outer one loosely woven, and of very slight texture, and 

 the inner tough and thick ; between the two webs is usually a quantity of yellowish dust, 

 resembling powdered sulphur in appearance. In this state the insect continues for about 

 three weeks, and then comes forth as a pale brownish, thick-bodied, and by no means 

 handsome, moth, whose wings are crossed by two oblique, parallel, whitish lines, as seen 



Fig. 20. female moth and pupa.) The month of July 



is the period when these moths are most abundant ; they then swarm about our lamps at 

 night, and with a little trouble might be very much diminished in number, when they 

 thus come to us to be killed. Their individual life in the moth state is very short, not 

 lasting more than a few days, during which they pair and provide for the continuance of 

 their race, the female laying her bracelet of eggs, from which the next year's brood is to 

 come. Thus far we have been treating of the American Tent caterpillar (Clisiocampa 

 Americana, Harr.); the other species, the Forest Tent caterpillar (C . sylvatica, Harr.) 

 resembles it so much in general appearance and mode of life, that we need say but little 

 respecting it. The larva, as we have already pointed out, has a series of white spots 

 along its back instead of a white stripe, and differs also from the other species in not 

 constructing a large " tent," under which to live with its fellows, but merely making a 

 sort of web on the side of the trunk or large branches, on and about which it lives more 

 or less in community, but with nothing like the same social tastes as the other species. 

 The moths differ a good deal from, though they bear a general resemblance to C. Ameri- 

 cana ; the chief variation is in the color, which is paler, and more of a reddish-yellow 

 hue, and in the stripes, which are dark instead of whitish, and not nearly so conspicuous. 

 C. sylvatica also very frequently forms its cocoon amongst the leaves of the tree upon 

 which it ha3 been feeding, a practice which we have never observed in the case of the 

 other. The natural food of the Forest Tent caterpillar is evidently the leaves of 

 most of our common forest trees, but of late years it has been most destructive to 

 apple and other cultivated trees. In June, 1866, the editor of the Ganada Farmer (p. 



