FIELD BOOK OF INSECTS. 



The larvae are largely nocturnal and spend the day con- 

 gregated in colonies on a limb, trunk, or in some protected 

 nook. They pupate about July, also often in colonies, 

 each rather conical, dark-brown pupa, about an inch 

 long, lying among a few threads, and securely attached to 

 some of them by its terminal spine. If you should see 

 something which you think may be the Gypsy Moth or the 

 Brown-tail Moth, in any of their stages, send it at once 

 to your State Entomologist or to the U. S. Bureau of 

 Entomology at Washington. 



We do not know how the Brown-tail 

 Euproctis Moth (plate Lyi) crossed the Atlantic 



chrysorrhoea . 



from Europe, but it happened near Boston 



in the early nineties. Its American range is now from 

 Rhode Island to Nova Scotia. Unlike those of the Gypsy 

 Moth, these females fly freely, so that wind is a factor in 

 their spread ; they are white, except for the yellowish-brown 

 hairs at the tip of their abdomen, which give them their 

 name. The males are similar but smaller and the brown 

 of their tails is not so conspicuous. Adults appear in 

 July and fly abundantly to lights. The female covers her 

 egg-mass, which is usually placed on the under side of a 

 leaf, with brownish hairs from her body. The larva? 

 hatch in two or three weeks and feed in colonies, webbing 

 together the tender terminal leaves. In this nest they 

 pass the winter, when a third or half grown. The full- 

 grown larva is about an inch and a half long, nearly black 

 but with a red tubercle on the back of the ninth and tenth 

 segments; it is clothed with hair, there being a row of 

 nearly white tufts on each side of the body and the rest 

 brownish. These hairs, especially the brown ones, are 

 barbed and carry an irritating poison; furthermore, they 

 are carried by wind when freed at molting times and, if 

 they gain entrance to the human skin, give rise to "brown- 

 tail rash." The larvae feed on a wide range of plants, 

 preferring apple, pear, wild cherry, oak, and maple. The 

 cocoons are loosely spun, often in masses, in curled leaves, 

 crevices in bark, and in other sheltered places. The pupal 

 period averages about three weeks. See Gypsy Moth for 

 advice. 



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