Caterpillar

“ When they had been placed in the box the little girl sat and watched the caterpillar make a good meal, while her aunt explained to her how it would first become a chrysalis and then a butterfly.
“How long does it have to be a caterpillar?” she asked.
“Twenty or thirty days,” answered Aunt Doris. “But I think that this one is quite old and will hang itself up before long now.”
“How can you tell, auntie?”
“I judge by the color and size. When this caterpillar is very young it is greenish, but as it grows older it casts its skin several times; each time it grows brighter and weighs more.” ”

“ The caterpillar when full grown is about five inches and a half in length; of a yellowish-green colour, inclining in some places to blue, each segment armed with a few black setose spines. On the three segments immediately behind the head, the spines are of very great length, curved and granular, the upper half black, the under reddish-yellow.
When the caterpillar raises its head, and draws the anterior segments together, as it is in the habit of doing when disturbed, it has a very formidable appearance, the spines forming a kind of crest over its head. ”

“ When full grown the caterpillar is green, roughened with yellow points, oblique stripes on the sides yellow, spiracles reddish, horn of the general colour, sometimes tipped with reddish. Head triangular in shape, but not pointed on the top. A reddish spotted form of the caterpillar is not very uncommon. In its very early life the head is rather triangular than rounded, as is the head of the young caterpillar of the previous species, and also that of the Eyed Hawk. Feeds on poplar, aspen, sallow, and willow, and may be found from July to September and sometimes October. ”

“ The caterpillar is ochreous brown or brownish grey, with a series of diamond-shaped blackish marks, and a pale central line, on the back; the dots and the spiracles are black, each of the latter with a blackish streak in front of it. In the autumn it feeds upon dock and other low plants; but in the spring, when it is more easily found, the caterpillar eats the buds and young leaves of birch, oak, sallow, bramble, etc. The moth is out in June and July, and is not uncommon in woods. The black form seems to be peculiar to north England. In Amurland the species is represented by var. ”

“ The ribs seem to be eighteen or twenty in number; laid in June or July on plants of dog-violet. On emerging from the egg the young caterpillar devours most of the shell. It is then of a pale olive colour with brownish warts, from each of which there is a pale and rather long jointed bristle; the head is black. The full-grown caterpillar is smoky pink and velvety-looking. There is a brownish line along the middle of the back. The spines are "ochreous in colour, tinged with pink, and beset with fine pointed black bristles." ”

“ When the caterpillar is smaller, he lurks unseen on the under-side of the leaves, and this pattern of oblique purplish lines exactly imitates the general effect of the shadows cast by the ribs—so much so, that if you look for him on a privet-tree in spring, I doubt whether you will find him till I point him out to you. Even when he waxes fat and full fed, the purple stripes still aid him more or less by breaking up the large green surface into smaller areas, as Professor Poulton has well noticed. ”

“ For a short time previous to hatching, the form and colour of the caterpillar is faintly discoverable through the semi-transparent egg-shell. The juvenile Caterpillar, or Larva, gnaws his way through the shell into the world, and makes his appearance in the shape of a slender worm, exceedingly minute of course, and bearing few of the distinctive marks of his species, either as to shape or colouring. On finding himself at liberty, in the midst of plentiful good cheer, he at once falls vigorously to work at the great business of his life—eating ”

“ Immediately after hatching, many caterpillars eat the egg-shell for their first meal; they then settle down to the business of feeding and growing. It should be remembered that it is entirely on growth made whilst in the caterpillar stage that the size of a butterfly depends. In the course of a day or two the necessity arises for fasting, as moulting, an important event, is about to take place. Having spun a slender carpet of silk on a leaf or twig, the caterpillar secures itself thereto, and then awaits the moment when all is ready for the transformation to commence. ”

“ Both moth and caterpillar are of a large size, the caterpillar being about the length and thickness of a man’s finger. Its colour is a tolerably dark grey, but subject to some variation in tint. There is no difficulty in ascertaining this species of the creature, as it is clearly distinguished from caterpillars of a similar shape or line by two blue marks on the back of its neck, as if a fine brush filled with blue paint had been twice drawn smartly across it. ”

“ The pupa is very dark brown, approaching to black, and if Abbot's delineation be correct, free from hairs. The author just alluded to found the caterpillar spin up on 27th September, and the fly appeared on the wing on the 17th of May, and continued coming out at different times till the 15th of August following. The caterpillar stings very severely, and encloses itself in a brown web on the leaves. It is not very common, and is a very tender fly to keep in cabinets, the male sooner decaying than any other. When young, the caterpillars feed in large companies, but ultimately become solitary. ”

“ When disturbed, the caterpillar rears back on its hind legs and “makes a face.” The species has long been widespread throughout the southern states feeding on the foliage of oak, elm, plum, and sycamore trees. They have been found also in truck gardens and orchards. Recently they have invaded the desert mountains of the Southwest, having been reported by Stahnke as especially numerous in the Globe-Miami area of Arizona, feeding on the foliage of oaks.
Puss caterpillar (Courtesy Dr. Herbert L. Stahnke)
Because of their long, silky hairs, children are tempted to touch them. ”

“ This species (Plate 132, Fig. 5) is usually found in marshy localities, or in gardens, over the eastern counties, and from Northamptonshire through Bucks, and Hertfordshire, to Kent, and Surrey. The caterpillar feeds from September on the shoots of Phalaris arundinacea and the cultivated form of that plant grown in gardens, and known as ribbon grass. Also said to feed on Poa aquatica. When the grass dies down in the late autumn the caterpillar enters the ground to hibernate, and emerges in the spring ready to attack the young grass shoots as soon as they appear. ”

“ The robins, bluebirds, cat-birds, woodpeckers, blackbirds, and others are here. This spring some of the gulls from the great lakes were fishing on the river. In Young People No. 24 Arthur L. H. wrote about his caterpillar that turned into a butterfly, and I thought he might like to hear about ours. My brother found a caterpillar that had different-colored cross-bands on it, like a Roman sash. He brought it home, and we fed it on leaves till it made a beautiful cocoon of a thin veil-like material of a pale sea-green color, with a line and a few dots of gold on it near the middle. ”

“ They are made up of rings, and both the moth and the caterpillar have six legs apiece. Most caterpillars have little prop legs, but these aren't real legs and shouldn't be counted. Caterpillars eat and eat and eat; they are such solid little chaps they must need a good many legs, real and false, to keep moving at all. Well, heigho! stretch your own legs, boys! We'll leave the caterpillar where it is, and move on to the top of the mountain, or we'll never be there in time to eat our own supper. ”

“ The caterpillar is distinguished for its imperturbable good temper; no one has yet witnessed a good stand-up fight between two of them. Even when browsing in hundreds upon a leaf, each caterpillar continues its work of eating, wholly regardless of the multitude feeding around it. ”

“ Caterpillars protect themselves in many ways; some make a tent of a leaf near their feeding-ground, turning over an edge under which they creep, or weaving the different corners of the leaf closely together with silken threads. Even the petals of a blossom may be secured by a filmy web. If the caterpillar must spend the winter as a caterpillar, it makes of the leaf a winter-house, which it covers with wood-colored silk, and weaves the thread securely to the skin. ”

“ The mission of the caterpillar may be considered as two-fold: he has to reach the chrysalis stage, from which he will emerge as a butterfly or moth, and then perpetuate his species; and he is an admirable machine for the conversion of vegetable matter into a form in which it can be digested and relished by birds. He stands to the feathered world, indeed, in exactly the same position that the ox and the sheep occupy in relation to man. ”

“ A full-grown caterpillar was on one occasion found at Raindene in Sussex on poplar, which is a well-known food of the species on the Continent. Now and then a full-grown caterpillar has been met with in October, and Buckler reared two in the autumn from the egg almost to the chrysalis stage, but they died before the change was effected. ”

“ As soon as the eggs hatch, which is in about a month, the young larvæ, or caterpillars, gnaw their way from the outside into the pith.
The plant does not show any sign of decay until the caterpillar is fully grown, when it dies. The caterpillar, Fig. 19, 2, is about one and one-fourth inches long, of a reddish brown color, with whitish stripes along the body. The stripes on the sides are not continuous, and the shading of the body varies, being darker on the anterior than on the posterior portion. When fully grown, Fig. 20, the color is lighter and the stripes are broader. ”

“ Caterpillar.—The caterpillar is cylindrical, reddish-yellow in color, marked with two brown lateral bands and a series of white spots upon the back. There are six rows of short branching spines upon the body, which are black in color; the two uppermost of these spines on the first segment are much elongated and are directed forward. The head is smaller than the body in the mature caterpillar, and is black. On the under side the caterpillar is pale or whitish; the legs are blackish-brown. It feeds upon the passion-flower. ”

“ Like the rest of its body, the caterpillar's head widely differs in structure from that of the perfect insect, being furnished with a pair of jaws, horny and strong, befitting the heavy work they have to get through, and shaped like pincers, opening and shutting from side to side, instead of working up and down after the manner of the jaws in vertebrate animals. This arrangement offers great convenience to the creature, feeding, as it is wont to do, on the thin edge of a leaf. It is a curious sight to watch a caterpillar thus engaged. ”

“ The almost endless variety of colouring in the provender exhumed from the burrows or recognised in the grasp of the various species also proves that the three have no preference, but seize the first caterpillar met with, provided it be neither too large nor too small, and belongs to the moths. The commonest prey are those gray caterpillars which infest the plant at the junction of a root and stem just below the soil. ”

“ No trace of wings is visible externally. The caterpillar, therefore, differs markedly from its parent in its outward structure, in its mode of progression, and in its manner of feeding; for while the butterfly sucks nectar or other liquid food, the caterpillar bites up and devours solid vegetable substances, such as the leaves of herbs or trees. ”

“ In this species the body is narrowly belted with yellow, usually four belts in the male and three in the female; the tail tuft is black in both sexes. The outer marginal border of the fore wings has a bronzy tinge, due to orange patches between the veins. (Plate 154, Figs. 5 ♂, 6 ♀.)
The caterpillar lives in the stems and shoots of black and red currant bushes; it feeds on the pith, and works its way downwards. ”

“ When quite full-grown, as seen in No. 7, the adult caterpillar generally rests at ease on the twigs of the willow-tree. Our illustration shows it in this final stage of its larval life, just taking alarm and humping its back at the approach of some bird or other enemy. If the alarm continues, it goes through a most curious series of evolutions, admirably shown by Mr. Enock in No. 8. Here, the little [Pg 155] beast is altogether on the defensive: it withdraws its head into the first ring of the body, and inflates the margin, which is bright red in colour. ”