Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/325

 CATERPILLAR AND THE MOTH

open leaf bud was encountered, dangling in loose webs, but spinning threads everywhere. Yet, in each brood, the individuals kept within reach of one another, and the trails of silk leading back to the main branch always insured the possibility of a family reunion whenever tl{is should be desired. One morning, the 27th, one family had gathered in its scattered members and these had already spun a little tentli.ke web in the crotch between the --- main stem of the sup- \- porting twig and two small branches (Fig. I45). Some members were crawling on the surface of the tent, others were resting within, still others were traveling back and forth on the silk trails  leading outward on the branches, and the rest were massed about the buds devouring the young leaves. The es- tablishment of the tent marks the beginning of a change in the cater- pillars' lives; it entails responsibilities that de- F,« 45- First t«nt made by young t«nt mand a fixed course of caterpillars. (About halfnatural size) daily living. In the lires of the tent caterpillars this poirt is what the beginning of school days is to us--the end of irresponsible ffeedom, and the beginning of sub- jection to conventional routine. Every tent caterpillar family that survives infancy eventually reaches the point where it begins the con-

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INSECTS