Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-09-07
! ICATERPILLARS. +
PREDOMINANT TRAITS OF THE
BUTTERFLY CHRYSALIS.
The Two-foId Mission of this Cor
geous Insect-Its ImpIacable
Enemy the Ichneumon
Infinite Hues. 81

spired writers of poetry and prose; but
up to the present time, so far as we
know, no one has made the caterpillar
his theme; and yet, closely examined,
many of the caterpillars are we'll nigh az
gorgeous in the raiment as the most
beautiful of butterflies. The caterpillar
is infinite in its variety of color, varying
from black, ashen gray, and white, to
bright greens and yellows, browns with
rich bands on blotches of white, yellow
and scarlet, and, indeed, of almost every
variety of brilliant color. Sometimes it
is soft, smooth and hairless; at others
covered with short, thick silken hairs
like velvet, and sometimes bristling with
long stiff hair, very porcupine among
its fellows. Caterpillars from the time
they are born, give evidence of the pos
session of two predominant faculties
one an all-devouring appetite. the other
the knowledge of constant danger and
the desire to escape the eye of their teem-
ing foes. This they do in accordance with
varied instincts inherited from progeni-
tors. Some will hide on the underside of
leaf, Others will eat into its substance,
and establish themselves domicile be-
tween the outer and inner tissue, pro.
ceeding at once to enlarge their house
and to satisfy their appetites. Others,
on the approach of danger, will curl
themselves up and drop to the ground,
trusting to fortune to fall between two
clods of earth, but, in any case, sham
ming dead until the danger has, as they
believe, passed away. Another kind,
a grayish.brown in color, and rough and
knobby of skin, will stand upright,
initiating so exactly the appearance of
little bent twig, that the keenest eye
would fail to detect the difference; while
great many caterpillars guard them
selves from the first in place of con-
cealment, and there passing the greater
portion of their lives. When, as not
unfrequently happens, the chosen hid
ing place is in the heart of bud Just
beginning to form, the results are
naturally the death of the flower and ex-
treme evaporation upon the part of the
flowers owner. But all these means of
defence are more or less passive in their
character. A not inconsiderable section
no sooner leave the egg than they set to
work to form themselves shelter by turn
ing over the edge of the leaf and fasten-
ing it with silken threads, so as to form
at once a house and a hiding place.
Lastly there are the caterpillars who
live in communities, and who establish
rampant against their foes by throwing
round their dwelling place thick cur
tain of silken threads, through which
their insect foes cannot break and even
birds seem to hold in high respect.
The mission of the caterpillar may be
considered as twofold; 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 ad-
mirable machine for the conversion OF
vegetable matter into 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 OK
and the sheep occupy in relation to man.
Although partial to seeds and fruits,
birds are not vegetarians in the broad
sense of the term, and would starve had
they nothing but leaves to devour,
whether the leaves of the rose or the
cabbage; the caterpillar then comes to
the rescue, and forms the intermediary
link. He possesses an appetite of ex-
traordinary voracIty, and, in the course
of his not very long life, eats many
hundred times his own weight of vege-
tables, and converts them into rich and
luscious food for the birds. 1t may be
said that, in some respects, at least, the
instinct of caterpillars must be defective,
or, knowing that their plumpness is
their danger, they would eat less. This
is no doubt true, but as it is true also of
sheep and bullocks, it can hardly be
made the subject of reproach to the
caterpillar. But, after all, vast as is
the number of caterpillars who go to
feed the birds, it cannot be said
that birds are by any means their
chief enemy. Their great foe and relent-
less exterminator is the ichneumon.
against whom none of their cunning
devices of concealment avail, but who
can discover them in their inmost lurk-
ing places. The ichneumon varies in
size as greatly as does the caterpillar him
self. Some of them are as long as wasps,
although with a slender body, no thicker
than bodkin; some so tiny that they
can scarce be seen with the naked eye;
but all are alike in their habits. Watch
one, large or small, as he settles upon a
leaf. Straightway he begins to hunt up
and down with quick eager motion, like
dog quartering turnip field for par.
tridges. Up and down, below or above,
prying into every Granny, he hunts,
hurrying from one leaf to another until
he finds caterpillar He wastes nc
time with him; he thrusts the long
ovipositor through the skin and places
an egg snugly there. He repeats this
two, three, or half-a-dozen times, &C
cording to his own size and that tc
which the caterpillar will grow. His
young ones must be fed when they are
Matched, and it would not do to lay more
than the caterpillar can support. What
the sensations of the caterpillar are when
thus treated no one has so far attempted
to explain. 1t gives little vince each
time the operation is performed, and
then pursues its vocation as quietly as il
nothing had happened There can be little
doubt that it is profoundly discouraged
1t must feel that all its efforts to elude
the foe have been wasted 1t doubtless
knows that it has received its deatl
wound, that it will never soar in the all
as bright winged butterfly, but that its
chrysalis state will be its last 1t speak,
well, then,- for the sense of duty of tn,
caterpillar that it goes doggedly on Al
before, eating as largely and steadily a
if nothing had occurred, and showing ne
sign of pain or disturbance at the brit
of foes who soon begin to gnaw away il
its interior. The organs of the cater
pillar are simple. 1t is small tube, ant
1t is probable that its sensibility il
slight; still it is inevitable that it mus
suffer more or less but it goes on until
Just as it is about to assume the chrysali
state, or just after it has done so, it dies
and the little ichneymoas make thei