The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-12-29
cATERPILLARS' CIRCUS.
Started a Seemingly Endless March
That Lasted Eight Days.

There are certain caterpillars that al |
ways crawl in Indian file, following
their leader wherever he goes. The
late J. II. Fabre, the greatest of all Oh
servers of insects, tried an amusing ex
pertinent upon some of these, just to
sec how long they would march if start
ed going in a circle.
The caterpillars he selected We're
those of the familiar tent-making va
riety that feed upon the leaves of pine
trees. Each of them spins fine thread
of silk as he goes; thus q procession Of
them leaves a fine ribbon on the ground.
Fabre's fascinating account OF his
experiment may be<eondenscd from his
'.Souvenirs Entomologiques.
In, the place where he kept his eater
pillars was a large earfbenwarc pot in
which grew 4 palm. Fabre watched
and waited until a. PROCESSION Of cater
pillars started up its side. and began
promepading along the rim. As soon
as the circle of caterpillars was COM
plete, the rim being covered with them,
he stopped any more from erowding
on, and with n brush swept from the
side of the pot all traces of the silk
spun in the ascent Thus the process
sion no longer had leader, but the
caterpillaFs were walking in an I'M
broken circle around the rim.
Now. what arc the caterpillars go
ing to do on this deceiving closed en-
cuita' he asks. /" Are they going To
keep on endlessly promenading around
until their strength gives out !? Or will
! they after repeated efforts find out
some way of breaking the closed cir
cult that keeps them on read that has
no end2'
He placed a branch of green pine
leaves close by to tempt them from
| their course Hour after hour. passed
and stil they walked like the damned
souls in that circle OF Dante, hell. Il
was Il revolving wheel Of caterpillars,
with only one irregplarity, place
where the leader had deviated slightly
on the initial circle Conscientiously
all the caterpillars followed this slight
deviation from the. perfect circle
! The speed of the march varied; il
averaged nine centimeters 4 minute
Sometimes il ceased. 1t began 1T noon
ON January 81. At 10 p. m. ri
the catefpiilars appeared asleep In tho
4 morning- they were still there; when LII,
sun rose they resumed their march. Al
day they kept it up The second night
was cold and the eaterpillars huddlet
together in two Irregular masses, as il
10 keep each other warm Ia the morn
ing the two groups began to marcel
again, and the circle was again com
{ plete
The third night the caterpillar
grouped themselves in one mass, which
overlapped the edges of the pot Tn
first one that awCke up was one o
those outside the silk marked road i,
the rim OF tie pot 1t took q new r1ut
and six others followed it. They clnnbe,
TO the top Of the palm tree, but find
ing none of their habitual food re
: traced their steps. found their com
panions had resumed the circular mare
and rGloined them, Once again the rim
was complete.
The mraeh continued through til
: fourth and fifth days Twice fcl
: eatcrpillar- vcntured along the brane
!, line formed BY the seven wanderar,
: hut always they returned to the pTcecs
: sion
They were getting tired Some Q
them refused 10 move, thus holding II
the whole line On the sixth dav a e.,
black heads were wavering, evident
: seeking n way out Of the magic cii
ele. At last one more daring than IN
Others crawled down the side of In
pot and four Others followed. The rcs
continued their march around the rim
:. But the five adventures got half wa
, down the pot, heeitatcd, turned bac
: and reioined the procession.
:. On the eighth dav, however, man
catcrpillars ventured down the rout
= thus indicated. During the day. b
ones and twos and in groups, all o
them escaped and by night they wer
all i'll their nest
! They We're on the rim for l6S hour
: about half of which they spent !
marching. They marched .i53 meter
Springfield Republican.