Gary Lindblom, age 7, of Rockford, for his question:

 What does a caterpillar use to make his cocoon?

When a hungry caterpillar has eaten and eaten all he needs, he gets ready for a sleep. If he is a moth caterpillar, he wraps himself in a cocoon blanket of softest silk. The blanket material is made in special glands in his lower lip and the caterpillar squirts it out through tiny holes.

When it comes out, the material is soft and sticky but in the air it soon dries into a thread of fine silk. The caterpillar spins and spins and the thread gets longer and longer. As he spins he twists and squirms to wind his long thread of silk around and around his little body.