Clje Canadian dMowolo-gi 



VOL. V. 



LONDON, ONT., AUGUST, 1873. 



N0.8 



ON SOME OF OUR COMMON INSECTS. 



7. THE FALL WEB-WORM— Hyphantria textor, Harris. 



Fig. 16. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



Though extremely abundant and very destructive throughout the 

 whole of this Province, and in the neighboring Northern and Middle 



States, this insect (fig. 16) is very 

 commonly confounded with the 

 equally abundant and noxious 

 Tent Caterpillars ( Clisiocampa 

 Amei'icana and Sylvatica, Harris^ 

 see fig. 17. This confusion 

 arises solely from the fact that 

 all three species spin large webs 

 -7 upon the trees they infest, and 

 therefore, without further obser- 

 vation, it is taken for granted that they are one and the same. We feel 

 no surprise at a mistake being made between the two species of Tent 

 Caterpillars, as they closely resemble each other in many respects ; but 

 the Fall Web-worm differs from both in almost every particular. For 

 instance, the former are hatched from the egg-bracelets very early in the 

 spring before the apple leaves are fully expanded, and very soon spin in 

 the fork of a limb, or upon the side of the trunk, their thick, silvery 

 white, cobweb-like ' tent • ' the latter do not appear till the month of 

 August, when they form a loosely-woven, dirty-coloured web over the end 

 of a bough. Were the web and the ' tent ' at once upon the same tree 

 there would be no difficulty in distinguishing between them, but few bear 



