INSECTS
reduced to this extremity by its own feeding, but produced similar conditions for one in a small apple tree by removing all the leaves. This was on May 19, and the caterpillars were mostly in their fifth stage. At seven o'clock in the
Fig. 149. Twigs of choke cherry and of apple denuded by tent caterpillars
evening the caterpillars in this colony came out as usual, and, after doing the customary spinning on the tent, started off to get their dinner, suspecting nothing till they came to the cut-off ends of the branches. Then they were clearly bewildered—they returned and tried the course over again; they tried another branch, all the other branches; but all ended alike in bare stumps. Yet there were the accustomed trails, and their instincts clearly said that silk paths led to food. So all night the caterpillars hunted for the missing leaves; they went over and over the same courses, but none ventured below the upper part of the trunk. By 3:45 in the morning
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