86 
MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 
males than in the females. When at rest the wings are folded in 
such a way that they slant both sides of the abdomen like a roof, and 
the lower wings project on the sides, not being wholly covered by the 
upper wings. The moths are night-flyers. Some of the larvae are 
gregarious, living in colonies, frequently in immense numbers. 
Some species feed on cultivated trees, and on account of their vast 
numbers sometimes do immense damage. The pupa state is passed 
in a cocoon composed mostly of silken threads. 
A numerous and most destructive species belonging to this group 
in the East is Clisiocampa americana , the tent caterpillar, whose un¬ 
sightly webs of large dimensions are to be seen almost everywhere 
in neglected apple orchards and by the roadside on wild cherry-trees. 
The eggs of the female moth are deposited in a compact mass or 
bunch near the end of a twig, of its chosen food plant, partly or 
wholly encircling it. They are cylindrical in shape and are placed 
on end close together often three or four hundred in a bunch and 
covered with a shining brown water-proof varnish which protects 
them from the weather. In this state they remain during the fall 
and winter, and hatch about the time that the leaf-buds are ready to 
burst in May. The young caterpillars construct in the fork of a 
branch a small triangular web or tent of fine silken webs in which 
they remain through the night and during cold or stormy weather, 
sallying forth in long lines, usually in single file, each caterpillar 
spinning its web, presumably to enable it to retrace its steps as it 
advances to the ends of the twigs to feed upon the opening foliage. 
In time these lines of silk extend to the tips of all the immediate 
branches about the nest, which is added to as the individuals com¬ 
posing the colony grow in size. As they remain in this tent at 
all times when not engaged in feeding or in wandering to and from 
their feeding grounds, it is a veritable home, and in time becomes 
large and strong, capable of resisting the attacks of most birds and of 
all parasitic insects. When the caterpillars reach maturity they are 
about two inches long, sparsely clothed with soft hairs thicker on the 
sides, with black heads, and are striped lengthwise with white, 
yellow and black, with a blue spot in the middle of each segment 
on each side. When about to pupate they abandon their tent 
and separately wander off in search of a suitable locality in which 
to spin their cocoons. 
These are spun in crevices in the bark of trees, about fences and 
stone walls, frequently on buildings on the clapboards or under the 
