!N^EW YoEK Agricttltural, Experiment Station. 305 



after leaving the cocoons, but probably live but a short time after 

 the eggs have been deposited. Some female moths kept in the 

 breeding cages laid their eggs within two days after escaping from 

 the cocoon and died before the end of the third day. 



Descriptions. — In general the moths resemble those of the 

 apple-tree tent-caterpillar except that the oblique lines across the 

 fore-wings are dark instead of light in color. The general color 

 of typical specimens is buff with a brownish tinge. An exami- 

 nation of a large number of moths showed a wide variation from 

 this even in the individuals that do not approach the varieties, 

 referred to on a subsequent page. Both wings and body are sub- 

 ject to decided shadings of either a yellow or brownish cast. A 

 male moth of average size spreads about one inch, but in the 

 moths reared last spring a few were found that spread but I inch 

 and a few that spread 1^ inches. There is less variation in the 

 markings of the females but an equal or greater variation in size. 

 A female of average size was found to spread If inches, the 

 smallest li inches and the largest If inches. The two upper 

 rows of moths on Plate XXV show the variation in size. The 

 upper row are males and the second row females. 



The following detailed descriptions of the male and female 

 moths are by Dr. Asa Fitch.^*' 



"The male moth usually measures 1.20 inches across its spread wings. Its 

 thorax is densely coated with soft hairs of a nankin-yellow color. Its ab- 

 domen is covered with shorter hairs, which are light umber or cinnamon brown 

 on the back and tip and paler or nankin-yellow on the sides. The antennae 

 are gray, freckled with brown scales and their branches are very dark brown. 

 The face is brown, with tips of the feelers pale gray. The fore-wings are gray, 

 varied more or less with nankin-yellow, and they are divided into three nearly 

 equal portions by two straight dark brown lines, which cross them obliquely, 

 parallel with each other and with the hind margin. ♦ • * xhe fringe is 

 of tlie same dark brown color, with the oblique lines, with two whitish alter- 

 nations towards its outer end. But some times it is of the same color with 

 the wings, and edged along its tip with whitish. The hind wings are of a 

 uniform pale umber or cinnamon brown, sometimes broadly grayish on the 

 outer margin and across their middle a faint darker brown band is usually 



20 Fitch, Asa. Fifth Report, p. 822. 



20 



