THE BROWN-TAIL .MOTH. 41 



pillars in the metropolitan district in the summer months 

 that druggists put out special lotions for the " brown-tail 

 moth itch," many of which are meritorious. 



Life History. 

 The moths emerge from the cocoons from the 1st to the 

 20th of July, and liy principally by night. In marked con- 

 trast to the gypsy moth, the female brown-tail moth flies 

 freely, and when caught up by the wind is often transported 

 long distances. Mating takes place soon after the Avings 

 are developed, and egg laying begins a few hours later. 

 The eggs are usually deposited on the under side of leaves 

 on the outside of the trees, preferably near the top. The 

 egg mass is much like that of the gypsy moth, although 

 smaller and more elongated. It contains from two hundred 

 to four hundred small globular eggs, thickl}^ covered by a 

 mass of brown hair from the tip of the abdomen of the moth. 

 A typical egg mass (Plate 7) is about two-thirds of an inch 

 long and about one-fourth of an inch wide. If the moths 

 are disturbed while laying, or reach the edge of the leaf on 

 which the eggs are being deposited, they often change the 

 direction in which they move, or go to another place and 

 recommence the work. Whenever such changes occur, the 

 resulting egg mass is more or less irregular in form. Occa- 

 sionally the eggs are deposited on branches and trunks of 

 trees, on fences, on the walls of houses and even on lamp 

 posts. 



The Fr/f/. 



The egg is honey-yellow in color, of a more or less glob- 

 ular form, being about one-thirtieth of an inch in diameter, 

 and hatches in from fifteen to twenty days. The young 

 larvae feed at first on the leaf to which the effo; mass was 

 attached, but soon migrate to other near-b}'" leaves, always 

 returning at night to their original feeding place. 



The Wiii/rr 1 1 W> (Plates 2, 13). 

 The hibernaculum or winter web of this insect is of such 

 a novel natur(>, at least to American entomologists, that a 

 detailed description of it may well be given at this point. 



