These moults occur from four to six times in the development of the
caterpillar; at each it emerges larger, brighter, often with
other changes of colour, and eats more voraciously as it grows.
With me, in handling caterpillars about which I am anxious,
their moulting time is critical. I lost many until I learned to
clean their boxes thoroughly the instant they stopped eating and
leave them alone until they exhibited hunger signs again. They
eat greedily of the leaves preferred by each species, doing best
when the foliage is washed and drops of water left for them to
drink as they would find dew and rain out of doors. Professor
Thomson, of the chair of Natural History of the University of
Aberdeen, makes this statement in his "Biology of the Seasons",
"Another feature in the life of caterpillars is their enormous
appetite. Some of them seem never to stop eating, and a species
of Polyphemus is said to eat eighty-six thousand times its own
weight in a day." I notice Doctor Thomson does not say that he
knows this, but uses the convenient phrase, "it is said.
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