1386 
Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 2o, 1922 
Where and How Insects Live in Winter 
A MYRIAD HOST.—November days are here. Sum¬ 
mer is on the wane, Winter is coming, and all 
the hosts of insect forms that peopled the world dur¬ 
ing the Summer days will soon cease their activities 
and disappear from sight and hearing. What teeming 
millions of these tiny animals met us on every hand, 
flitted through our field of vision or proclaimed them 
selves to our sense of hearing by buzz or hum or chirp ! 
The hot humid days of July and August brought 
myriads of mosquitoes, the dog-day harvest flies or 
cicadas filled the air with their shrill songs; the 
bees in unnumbered hosts hummed among the flow- 
Thc Mourning Cloak Butterfly. Fig. 600 
ers: the gay butterflies flitted through the fields in 
happy quest of nectar; the moths, both great and 
small, foolishly circled about our lamps and blun¬ 
dered into the flame: the myriad beetles raced over 
the ground, or climbed among the trees and shrubs, 
or flew through the air. while the locusts, the bugs, 
the flies, the wasps and the ants went their ways 
ill hosts. The evening air was full of the inces¬ 
sant. regular, rhythmic chirping of the tree-crickets, 
the last insect notes of the dying year. Soon, with 
the harder frosts and freezing nights, all of this 
great host of living forms will vanish from sight 
and ken as though by magic—apparently not one 
will be left on the earth. What becomes of them 
all? Where do they go. and how do they get through 
the Winter? The answer is simple, and he who 
wanders through the fields and along the woodland 
paths these Autumn days with his eyes open can 
lead tlie secret for himself. 
DIGGING IN.—On one of those fine October days 
1 went, hunting with killing bottles through the 
fields in quest of insect game, mainly of the common 
black crickets. In turning over stones and sticks 
under which crickets are apt to lurk I found all 
sorts of living things that had “dug in” for the 
Winter—snakes, salamanders, snails, slugs, cater¬ 
pillars. beetles, ants and others. They had with¬ 
drawn from the scenes of their Summer activities, 
Pupa of a Cabbage Butterfly on Underside of Stick 
Fig. 601 
and were quite ready to sleep the long Winter 
through. In situations similar to these insects hide 
themselves in the Fall and there find some shelter 
from the frosts and snows of the Winter season. 
Of course millions of individuals die at the coming 
of Winter, but each one of the thousands of different 
species of insects on the earth has developed some 
way by which its kind is carried through the Win¬ 
ter ready to propagate the race in the Spring and 
start new generations for the Summer season. 
COLD STORAGE.—Many insects pass the Winter as 
adults hidden away in nooks and crannies where they 
may freeze stark and stiff, yet retain the spark of life 
rhat will revive with the warm days of Spring. The 
beautiful mourning-cloak butterfly (Fig. 600» hides 
away in the Fall and lives through the long Winter 
days to come out early in the Spring with frayed 
and battered wings, but ready to lay eggs for a new 
brood. Not many butterflies can survive the Winters 
here in New York. Some of them migrate to the 
tropics in the Fall as do birds, notably the fine big 
milkweed butterfly called the Monarch. 
METHODS OF HIBERNATION.—Of the inmates 
in a bumblebee's nest all of the workers die in the 
Fall, and only the few young queens are loft to hide 
away in secluded places, where, undisturbed and 
rarely found they survive until Spring. Various 
species of flies live in hibernation hidden in hollow 
trees, stumps, attics of houses and similar secluded 
places. As a boy I recall finding flies in the dead 
of Winter hidden in decayed hollow beech trees 
which we were cutting for firewood. That notorious 
pest, the pear tree psylla. lives as an adult hidden 
beneath leaves which have lodged in the crotches of 
the pear branches, or beneath loose pieces of hark 
on tlie trunk. I have caught them in February with 
the thermometer near zero, breathed upon them a 
few minutes in the closed bands and seen tlieir 
antenna* begin to quiver, the wings to move and the 
legs to unfold, and in a minute or two off they 
crawled, lively and happy so long as they were kept 
warm. Thus it is with scores of common garden, 
field and fruit insects—the common squash stink 
bug, the striped cucumber beetle (Fig. 002), the 
plum curculio, the Colorado potato beetle and others. 
The Striped Cucumber Beetle. Fig. 602 
Moreover, they hide nearby beneath the rank weeds 
and rubbish left along the borders of gardens, fences, 
ditch banks, stone walls and roadsides, ready to re¬ 
invade the orchards and gardens in the Spring. The 
potato beetle and the cucumber beetle arrive early, 
and sit around waiting for the potatoes and cucum¬ 
bers to come up. 
WINTERING IN EGG FORM.—On the other 
hand, many insects deposit tlieir eggs in the Fall 
and then die without ever seeing their young, which 
do not appear until the following Spring. The moth 
of the apple tree tent caterpillar deposits its eggs 
(Fig. 607) in rings about the small branches of a 
cherry or apple tree in July, and varnishes the ring 
with an impervious material to protect it from 
(he weather until the following April or May, 
when they hatch into a generation of cater¬ 
pillars whose parents have long been dead. Plant 
lice or aphids lay their black shining eggs on 
the branches of apple, cherry, currant or other 
plants in the Fall, where they rest through the Win¬ 
ter. The apple red bugs place their eggs in tiny 
punctures made in the bark of apple branches dur¬ 
ing late June or early July, where they remain un¬ 
hatched until (be following April. Many grasshop¬ 
pers lay their eggs in the Fall in the ground (Fig. 
60S) along ditch banks, fences and in pastures, 
where they are secure against disturbance for the 
Winter. The gypsy moth, the Fall canker-worm, the 
tussock moth, the fruit tree leaf-roller and others 
lay their eggs in the Summer or Fall and then die 
with the assurance, however, that they have pro¬ 
vided for a continuance of their kind upon the earth. 
BORERS AND CATERPILLARS.—Again, there 
are many insects that tide over (he cold season in 
a partly grown condition, particularly as caterpillars 
or maggots or grubs. For example, the well-known 
poach free borer (Fig. 610) finds a snug retreat in 
its burrow at the base of the tree, and there rests 
quietly through the Winter. In the Spring the borer 
grows fast, becomes mature, and transforms to a 
moth which lays eggs for a new generation of borers. 
The caterpillar of the codling moth crawls down the 
apple tree in the Summer or early Fall, finds a 
cranny beneath a loose piece of bark, spins a silken 
White Grub in Cell in the Ground. Fig. 603 
case and curls up (Fig. 609) to sleep until Spring. 
The May beetles, or June “bugs,” pass the Winter 
as partly grown white grubs, deep in the soil (Fig. 
602) of meadows, cornfields, and pastures. The 
partly grown caterpillars of the famous brown-tail 
moth of New England make nests out of leaves and 
silk (Fig. (504) in the tops of trees, divide each nest 
into compartments and in these snug little rooms 
settle down for the Winter. Those pesky enemies 
of the gardener, the cutworms, go through the Win¬ 
ter as partly grown caterpillars curled up snugly 
beneath stones, clods of earth, dead vines, grass or 
other debris. 
THE PITA STATE.—Finally there is a great num¬ 
ber of insects that pass the Winter in a quiet, inactive 
resting stage known at the pupa. The pupa cannot 
move about, and it does not cat. but all the parts of 
the adult insect are developed and can be seen in the 
pupa. The wings are plainly outlined and wrapped 
close to the sides of the body, while the legs and an¬ 
tenna* are folded down in front. Sometimes the pupa 
Winter Nest of Brown-tail Caterpillar. Fig. 601/ 
is in the ground, as in case of the green tomato worm. 
(Fig. 605). Sometimes it is wrapped in a cocoon 
of leaves and silk, which is hung securely to a 
branch. Again, it may l>e fastened to the underside 
uf a stick or hoard, as in the case of the cabbage 
butterfly (Fig. (501). In any case the pupa is able 
to withstand the vicissitudes of the Winter season 
and develop into the adult insect in the Spring. 
Thus these small but numerous animals pass the 
Winter in different ways and in many varied situa¬ 
tions. and succeed in getting through what must be 
an unfavorable and critical period for (hem. They 
are certainly remarkable for their adaptability, and 
