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[Assembly 
gnlar arrangement of the colors to the tufts and long pencils of 
hairs with which it is clothed, is the hickory tussock-moth. And 
any one who is desirous of rearing an insect in order to inspect 
the remarkable changes whicli it undergoes as it grows up to its 
perfect state will succeed better with this, probably, than with 
any other species. One or more of the caterpillars placed in a 
tumbler or a box, and supplied with fresh leaves two or three 
times a week, will require no further care. So hardy are they 
that they will even feed upon leaves which are dry and brittle, 
and their cocoons may be kept in a warm stove-room during the 
winter without the inclosed insect withering from the dryness of 
the atmosphere. 
Although the hickory and walnut appear to be the trees of 
which these caterpillars are most fond they are by no means 
limited to them. Dr. Harris records his meeting with them upon 
the ash and elm, and I have found colonies of the young worms 
upon the butternut, the sumach and the slippery elm. They 
hatch from the eggs early in July, and whilst young they re¬ 
main together, a hundred or more in a company; all being pro¬ 
bably from one parent. They occupy a leaf near the end of a 
limb, forming for their residence a slight covering or tent made 
of the fine silken threads which they spin. If the limb is jarred 
most of them let themselves down from it by means of their 
threads, some dropping to the ground, 
others remaining suspended in the air at 
different heights. They have their re¬ 
gular periods for feeding and reposing. 
They consume the whole of the leaves 
where they reside, leaving only the mid¬ 
veins and some small fragments of the 
green tissue remaining. The annexed 
figure is taken from a leaf partly con¬ 
sumed by them. If when engaged in 
i feeding a fly or other insect annoys it, 
or even if tfie rays of the sun shining 
through the foliage happen to fall directly upon it, it moves away 
to another place; and if when thus crawling away its hairs touch 
