INTELLIGENCE OF LA.RV2E — CATERPILLARS. 
239 
600 or 800 individuals. When young they have no fixed habi- 
tation, but encamp sometimes in one place, and sometimes in 
another, under the shelter of their web ; but when they have 
attained two -thirds of their growth, they weave for themselves 
a common tent. About sunset the regiment leaves its quarters. 
. . . At their head is a chief, by whose movements their pro- 
cession is regulated. When he stops all stop, and proceed when 
he proceeds; three or four of his immediate followers succeed 
in the same line, the head of the second touching the tail of the 
first ; then comes an equal series of pairs, next of threes, and sc? 
on, as far as fifteen or twenty. The whole procession move* 
regularly on with an even pace, each file treading in the steps 
of those that precede it. If the leader, arriving at a particular 
point, pursues a different direction, all march to that point 
before they turn. 1 
The following additional facts concerning these remark- 
able habits may be quoted. I take them from the ac- 
count published by Mr. Davis in 6 Loudoun’s Magazine of 
Natural History : 5 — 
The caterpillars, he observed, were Bombyces, and were 
seen crossing a road in single file, each so close to its predecessor 
that the line was quite continuous, 4 moving like a living cord/ 
The number of caterpillars was 154, and the length of the line 
27 feet. When Mr. Davis removed one from the line the 
caterpillar immediately in front suddenly stood still, then the 
next, and next, and so on to the leader. Similarly, those behind 
the point of interruption successively halted. After a pause of 
a few moments, the first caterpillar behind the break in the 
line endeavoured to fill up the vacant space, and so recover con- 
tact or communication, which after a time it succeeded in doing, 
when the information that the line was again closed was 
passed forward in some way from caterpillar to caterpillar till 
it reached the leader, when the whole line was again put in 
motion. The individual which had been abstracted remained 
rolled up and motionless ; but on being placed near the moving 
column it immediately unrolled, and made every attempt to get 
readmitted into the procession. After many endeavours it 
succeeded, the one below falling into the rear of the interloper. 
On repeating the experiment by removing a caterpillar fifty from 
the head of the procession, Mr. Davis found that it took just 
thirty seconds by his watch for information of the fact to reach 
the leader. All the same results followed as in the previous 
1 Kirby and Spence, Entomology , Letter xvi. 
17 
