  “We found these upon the dead-nettle.” As he spoke, Frank opened a small cardboard box and showed his uncle half a dozen large, hairy caterpillars. Larva Cage. “Splendid,” said Uncle George. “We will just put these into the cage.” Uncle George, who was a very good carpenter, had of late been busy in his spare time making a box or cage for keeping caterpillars in. He called it a larva cage. It was a curious looking thing, something like a small meat-safe. Three sides and the top of it were covered with gauze. The fourth side was a large pane of glass. The gauze-covered side opposite to this opened as a door. It was divided into an upper and a lower part by a shelf in the middle, and, by sliding in two pieces of wood, it could be divided into four tiny rooms. Now that it was finished, Uncle George wanted to get it stocked, and his two nephews wanted it stocked too. “Do you want any more of these woolly caterpillars?” Frank asked. “No, Frank, but you can bring me in some more of a different kind. Or, better still, let us go out into the garden now and see if we can find any there.” The gardener beamed with joy when Uncle George told him what they had come to the garden for. “Caterpillars?” he said. “I wish you would take them all, sir. They are the worst vermin in the garden. Last year they left scarcely a leaf on my currant bushes.” Our three friends went straight to the currant bushes. Here they found a good many pretty little caterpillars of a creamy colour, richly striped with orange, and dotted over with black spots. These, their uncle informed them, were the caterpillars or larvÆ of the magpie moth. On the cabbages they found several caterpillars of the large white butterfly. These were bluish green in colour, with three bold yellow stripes running along the whole length of their bodies. “What are these, Uncle George?” Tom asked, as he turned up a cabbage leaf and pointed to several white patches on its under side. The leaf next it was spotted just like it. “Oh, Tom, how lucky we are! These are the eggs of the large white butterfly. Now we shall be able to follow up the whole life of this insect, and a wonderful life it is. Let us go right in and examine them. Take “Our larva cage is now quite full,” said Uncle George, when he had put the caterpillars in. “Why do you not put them into the same room, Uncle George?” “There are two reasons for that, Frank. First, they live upon different kinds of food. The hairy caterpillar, or ‘woolly bear,’ as boys call it, feeds upon nettles, the cabbage caterpillar prefers cabbage leaves, while the currant caterpillar will only eat currant leaves.
“Second, the woolly bear will sometimes eat up his smooth-skinned friends. Now, get your glasses and have a peep at the beautiful eggs of the ‘large white’ or ‘cabbage’ butterfly.” “Why, they are not at all like eggs,” said Frank, as he closely looked at them with his glass. “What are they like, Frank?” “They are like little pieces of carved ivory all shaped alike,” Frank replied. “Yes, but that does not give us a very clear idea of their shape,” observed his uncle. “Come on, Tom.” “They are like little Indian clubs with the handles cut off, only they are beautifully marked with long, slender ridges and cross bars.” “That is really a very good account of them, Tom. The boys counted all the groups of eggs, and found that there were eight eggs in some, nine in others, but that most of them contained ten or more. “Now, how many egg patches are there?” asked Uncle George. “There are seven patches on my leaf,” said Frank. “And ten on mine,” added Tom. “That is about one hundred and fifty eggs altogether,” said Uncle George. “Has each of these bunches of eggs been laid by one butterfly?” asked Frank. “It is more than probable that one butterfly laid the whole lot,” his uncle replied; “for the white butterfly lays, as a rule, over two hundred eggs.” “That is about as many eggs as a hen lays in a year,” said Frank. “Yes,” said Uncle George, “a good hen and a white butterfly lay about the same number of eggs in a year; but the butterfly lays all her eggs in one day. “After laying her eggs, she dies. That is perhaps why she always lays them on the kind of plant which the young caterpillars can feed upon when they hatch out. “Let us look at the caterpillars now. We need not take them out, as we can easily see them through the glass side of the cage. “Notice that the body of the cabbage caterpillar consists of a round, dark coloured head and a number of broad, ring-like divisions. How many of these divisions are there?” “Twelve,” said Frank, after counting carefully. “Right!” said his uncle. “Now, about legs—how many are there?” “There are three pairs of legs on the first three divisions of its body, and a pair of shorter and stouter legs on each of the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth divisions, making seven pairs of legs altogether,” Frank answered. Caterpillars of Magpie Moth. “That is quite correct, Frank, and I am glad you noticed the difference between the first three pairs and the others. The first three pairs are the creature’s real legs. The others are false or temporary legs.” “There is a row of black spots on the yellow band along its side,” observed Tom. “These are its breathing-holes, Tom. We breathe by our lungs only, but caterpillars and insects have breathing-tubes all over their bodies.” “The woolly bear and the cabbage caterpillar move about in the same way,” said Frank. “But look at those currant caterpillars, Uncle George, what a funny way they have of getting along!” “These belong to a kind of caterpillars known as ‘loopers,’” said his uncle. “They move about by looping up their bodies in this strange manner.” “I do not like to handle those hairy caterpillars,” Tom remarked. “Why are they covered with those nasty long hairs?” “You have just given the reason, Tom. You don’t “Notice how they coil up like a hedgehog when they are touched. This makes them more difficult to swallow. Just imagine how a bird would feel with one of these ticklish customers stuck in his throat, eh? “Now, boys, make a sketch of one of the tiny eggs, also one of the big cabbage caterpillar, and then we will go out and have a game of cricket on the lawn.” Exercises on Lesson XII.
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