344 • agricui.ture of maine). 



4. Red-Humped Caterpieear. 



(CEdemasia concinna.) 



During August, September and October, the reel-humped 

 caterpillar is one of the most troublesome orchard caterpillars 

 in the State. Many correspondents reported that entire or- 

 chards of young trees were stripped of their foliage, except 

 for the mid ribs of the leaves, before the presence of the pest 

 had been discovered. 



Fig. 10. (From ^le. Agr. Exp. Sta. 

 Circular). 



The mature insect is an inconspicuous brown moth with wing 

 expanse of slightly more than one inch. The female deposits 

 eggs on the under side of a leaf in a cluster, usually during 

 July. The young caterpillars, which soon hatch from these 

 eggs, feed upon the tender tissues of the under side of the leaf, 

 not attacking at first the upper surface. When they become 

 larger they devour the whole leaf except the mid rib. They 

 move in flocks, an entire brood feeding together and remaining 

 in a cluster when resting. In the caterpillar or larval stage 

 this insect is readily recognized. The body of the full grown 

 caterpillar is marked with fine longitudinal stripes of black, 

 white and yellow, and short black spines occur in rows. The 

 head is bright red and the first segment of the abdomen, which 

 is con.spicuously humped, is of the same color (fig. 10). The 

 caterpillars reach their full growth (about i^ inches) from 

 August to late October. When full grown, they descend to 

 the ground and hide under leaves or other rubbish and make a 

 glassy transparent cocoon, within which they pass their pupal 

 period. They remain in the cocoon all winter and emerge the 

 following season as mature moths. 



REMEDIES. 



The red-humped caterpillars are not especially difficult to 

 combat if a watch is kept for the colonies while they are young. 

 As they are gregarious, it is a simple matter to clip off the 

 small twig containing the whole brood of little caterpillars. 

 AMien they are larger they can often be dislodged by jarring 



