Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/328



light streak, and the whole series on each side is bordered above and below by distinct pale lines, the upper line often yellowish. Below the lower line there is a dark hand, and below this another pale line just above the bases of the legs. The back of the first body segment bas a brown transverse shield, and the last three segments are continuously brown, without spots or lines. From now on the tents increase rapid!y in size by suc- cessive additions of web spun over the tops and sides, each new sheet covering a fiat space between itself and the last. The old roofs thus become successively the floors of the new stories. The latter, of course, lap over on the sides, and many continue clear around and beneath the original structure; but since the tent was started in a crotch, the principal growth is upward with a continual expansion at the top. During the building period a symmetrical tent is really a beautiful object (Plate 4 C). Hall hidden among the leaves, its silvery whiteness pleas- ingly contrasts with the green of the foliage; its smooth silk walls glisten where the sun falls upon them and reflect warm grays and purples from their shadows. The caterpillars have adopted now a community form of living; all feed together, all rest and digest at the same time, all work at the same time, and their days are divided into definite periods for each of their several duties. There is, however, no visible system of government or regulation, but with caterpillars acts are probably func- tions; that is, the urge probably comes from some physio- logical process going on within them, which may be in- fluenced somewhat by the weather. The activities of the day begin with breakfast. Early in the morning the family assembles on the tent roof, and about six-thirty, proceeds outward in one or several orderly columns on the branches. The leaves on the terminal twigs furnish the material for the meal. After two hours or more of feeding, appetites are appeased, and

[ -7o ]

THE