The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-07-25
CATERPILLARS.
One Thousand Different Kinds-When They
Feed-NIore Numerous This Year than
Usual.

Usual.
Anumber of citizens who have gardens
state that tcaterpillars are more numerous
this year than usual, and that they de-
your the leaves of vines, shrubbery and
trees. In some Of the gardens the cater
pillars are searched for under the
leaves of grape-vines and various kinds
Of vegetation every day, and large num-
bers are caught and killed.
Different species select different times
of day for feeding; some eat at oil hours,
some in the morning and evening, and
others only at night. A knowledge of
these habits is of great advantage for the
easy destruction of many pests of the
garden. When attempts are made to
catch the caterpillars some roll them
selves into ring and remain as if dead,
the hairy ones resembling little hedge
hogs; others fall instantly to the ground
and try to escape by rapid flight, and
some attempt to defend themselves by
various motions of the body.
Some species herd together in great
numbers, constructing their silken habi-
tations in common; others live solitary,
exposed to light and Dir, or protected in
rolled leaves or silken sheaths; others
burrow in the ground, or conceal them
selves in the stems OF plants and the
pulpy substances of leaves. The "pro-
cessionary" caterpillars, when they quit
their nest, 60 in a regular procession, a
single caterpillar first and then others in
single file, or two, three and four abreast.
The line is so perfect in the columns
that the head of one is never beyond
that of another in the row. They form
their ranks, march and halt with the
precision of soldiers. Another species,
common in pine forests and living to-
gether, walk in procession in single file,
often very long, the head of each in con-
tact with the tail of the one in advance.
Caterpillars vary greatly in form and
appearance. The body is in some cases
smooth, in others hairy, and even spiny.
Where the middle portion of the body is
unprovided with feet the caterpillar
adopts the arched or loopcd manner Of
walking. These species are called span
ners, loopers, surveyors and geometers.
Some, when in state of repose, fix
themselves by the hind legs only, and
project in o. rigid condition from
branches. In the Northern States there
are about 1000 different kinds of butter
flies and moths. As each female lays
from 200 to 500 eggs. those species,
from single female each on nm average
produce in year 30O,0 caterpillars.
In France and Belgium the laws require
the people to kill the caterpillars in their
orchards and gardens under the penalty
of fine.
The rapidity of the growth of cater
pillars is truly astonishing. There is no
animal at all comparable to it for voraci-
ty, for some species will in twenty-fo1lr
hours more than double their own
weight. The silk worm, during the
thirty days in which it attains its full
size, eats $4,000 times its weight of
food.
Most caterpillars feed on vegetable
substances, roots, buds, seeds and even
the wood Of plants. When they are very
numerous scarcely any plant escapes
their attacks. Butterflies deposit their
eggs on the parts of the plants which
will furnish an easily accessible supply
of food to the caterpillar when it is
hatched Their eggs are found glued to
fruits and to flowers that are to produce
fruits, between the very petals, so that
the young find themselves surrounded
by an immediate supply.
An Eagle reporter asked T. Herman
Streoker, the we'll known entomologist,
why caterpillars are more numerous this
year than usual, and he replied that it
was difficult matter to give satisfac-
tory reason. Why it is that there are
great many of these insects some years
and comparatively few other years has
as yet not been ascertained by entomolo-
gists, excepting that some years more
eggs may be laid by the lepidoptera, and
the eggs and insects may better escape
their numerous enemies. In England
a rtain kind of caterpillar appeared in
very large numbers one year, and during
the ensuing eight years not a single cater
pillar of this species was seen in all Eng
land.-Reading Eagle.