THE BKOWN-TAIL MOTH. 15 



out Bohemia, Austria, Bavaria and Switzerland, and urged 

 the importance of destroying the mature moths. 



Rennie, "Nat. Hist. Insects,'' p. 2Q6, 1830, tells us how 

 the young caterpillars feed in ranks on the leaves; "the 

 heads of each rank being generally in the same line, they 

 all advance simultaneousl}^ and their progress has very 

 much the appearance of a regular military movement." He 

 gives as food plants the elm, white thorn, black thorn, 

 oak and fruit trees. In 1832, Boisduval, "Coll. Icon, des 

 Chenilles d'Europc," records the caterpillar as extremely 

 common, and doing "much damage to fruit trees, which are 

 often stripped of their leaves." He points out the wisdom 

 of destroying the winter webs in good season, before the cat- 

 erpillars emerge, by bm'ning them from the trees. Again, 

 in his "Entomologie Horticole," 1867, he states that this is 

 the most common insect in France, and that it lives on all 

 kinds of fruit trees and on nearly all forest trees. 



Eatzeburg, writing of this insect in Germany, in 1840, 

 says that it is distributed over nearly all Europe, and is 

 known everywhere as a pest both in the forests and orchards, 

 where it often destroys the entire fruit crop and injures the 

 shape of the trees. It frequently occurs in the forests in 

 multitudes on the oaks, willows, elms and other deciduous 

 trees, entirely devouring the leaves and blossoms. Writing 

 at a subsequent date, he states that in the late '50's the cat- 

 erpillars ravaged the oaks in the streets of Potsdam, and 

 even killed some of them. Brelim and Rossmassler, in their 

 " Thiere des Waldes," 1867, write of the moth as being 

 more injurious than certain allied species, and emphasize the 

 need of web destruction. These authors consider the brown- 

 tail moth as being "more injurious in the fruit garden than 

 in the forest." Figuier, "Insect World," 1868, describes 

 how the caterpillars have ravaged " the plantations of the 

 promenades of Paris." Blanehcrc, " Ravageurs des Forets," 

 1876, writes pertinently of the folly of neglecting the de- 

 struction of the winter webs, his observations beinsr as 

 applicable to American as to French conditions. Of the 

 apathy of the average property owners he says : ' ' Thus 

 they delay or neglect the most simple precautions up to the 



