TENT-CATERPILLAR.
Nearly every one has seen the "tents" of these in neglected trees. See [fig. 5]. They usually betoken the too busy man—the man with too many irons in the fire. They are large, unsightly bunches of webs, closely woven together at the forks of twigs at the ends of limbs or branches. The parents of these worms are moths (see [fig. 6]) which appear in June each year, and deposit their eggs in clusters containing two or three hundred, surrounding small twigs. See [fig. 7]. Sharp eyes, a sharp knife and nimble fingers will bring many to the kitchen fire. These eggs hatch in the warm days of spring, and the tiny worms immediately seek and devour the tender buds and leaves. The day they hatch they begin to build the "tent." Those from the same mass of eggs, say 250, combine to make the home nest or tent. They come out from this tent to feed in the morning, return for a siesta or sleep, and emerge again in the afternoon for a second feed.
