126 • AGRICULTUKAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



closed becomes a brown chrysalis and in about two to three week* 

 the moth comes forth. The cocoon is shown in Fig. 11, d. 



LIFE HISTORY. 



The moths appear early in July and in a few days lay their egg» 

 upon the twigs as described above. Early in the spring when the 

 buds are opening, the eggs hatch. The caterpillars live on the 

 leaves and require about six weeks to mature. They then spin 

 their cocoons from which the moths emerge in two or three weeks 

 completing the life history. 



REMEDIES. 



Pick off the egg clusters during the winter. Should any colonies 

 hatch in the spring, as soon as the web is noticed, remove it late in 

 the evening or early in the morning when the caterpillars are at 

 rest. The nest may be reached with a ladder and taken off with a 

 gloved hand and the larvae crushed ; or a bunch of rags can be tied 

 to the end ot a pole and the nest removed. The orchard should be 

 examined from time to time for a month or six weeks. The worms 

 should be killed or they will climb the trees again. This pest has 

 quite a number of natural enemies which keep it in check. 



A minute Ichneumon fly onl\- one twenty-fifth of an inch long is 

 parasitic on the eggs. One cluster of eggs examined last spring 

 hatched only about a dozen caterpillars and in a few days nearly 

 seventy-five of these Ichneumon flies emerged. 



FIG. 12. 



Fig. 12 represents a large Ichneumon fly that preys upon the 

 caterpillars. We hatched last spring from a cocoon an Ichneumon 

 fly shown in Fig. 13. 



