But if the time
specified had been allowed to elapse, every caterpillar would
have starved.
One of the books I read preparatory to doing this work asserts
concerning spinners: "Most caterpillars make some sort of cocoon
or shelter, which may be of pure silk neatly wound, or of silk
mixed with hair and all manner of external things--such as pieces
of leaf, bark, moss, and lichen, and even grains of earth."
I have had caterpillars spin by the hundred, in boxes containing
most of these things, have gathered outdoor cocoons by the peck,
and microscopically examined dozens of them, and with the
exception of leaf, twig, bark, or some other foundation against
which it was spun, I never have seen a cocoon with shred, filament,
or particle of anything used in its composition that was not drawn
from the spinning tube or internal organism of the caterpillar,
with the possible exception of a few hairs from the tubercles. I
have been told by other workers that they have had captive caterpillars
use earth and excrement in their cocoons.
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