CATERPILLAR, the larva• of a moth or butterfly. The body is long and cylindrical, consisting, besides the head, of three thoracic and 10 abdominal segments, the last one form ing the suranal plate. The three pairs of thor acic legs are solid, horny and jointed, while the supports of the abdominal segments, of which there may be five pairs, are soft and fleshy. Caterpillars are very voracious, the di gestive canal being very large. The American silk-worm (Telex polyphemus),at the end of its life as a caterpillar, has eaten not less than 120 oak leaves weighing three-fourths of a pound; its food, taken in 56 days, equals in weight 86,000 times the primitive weight of the worm. The jaws of caterpillars are large, black, horny appendages, and are toothed on a cutting edge so as to pass through a leaf somewhat like a circular saw. The eyes are minute, simple eye lets, three or four on each side of the head, and only useful, probably, in distinguishing day from night. The silk is spun through the tongue-like projection (spinneret) of the under lip. It is secreted in two long sacs within the body. The thread is drawn out by the two fore feet, which are three-jointed and end in a single claw. The legs on the hind body,
sometimes called prop-legs, are fleshy, not jointed, and end in a crown of hooks which curve outward, enabling the caterpillar to firmly grasp the edge of the leaf or a twig of its food-plant. Most caterpillars are more or less hairy or spiny, rendering them, when es pecially so, disagreeable to birds; besides this, they are bright colored, so that birds readily recognize them and waste no time over them, but search for the common green smooth bodied ones, which are, however, so difficult of detection by the birds that plenty are left to become moths or butterflies. Certain cater pillars, as the currant-worm, though smooth bodied, are brightly spotted; these, however, often have a disagreeable taste. The bright colors are thus danger signals, hung out to warn the birds and other enemies. (See LARVA). Consult authorities mentioned under BurrER PLY , Mont, INSECT, especially Holland,