28o State Horticultural Society. 



shows the mass of eggs immediately after having been deposited. As 

 soon as tliis process is completed, the female moth immediately smears 

 over this mass of eggs a gummy, varnish-like substance, which com- 

 pletely covers them and renders them glossy in appearance, dark-brown 

 in color and water-proof. This mass of eggs is therefore deposited dur- 

 ing the month of July, and it remains upon the tree until the following 

 spring before the eggs hatch. 



Early the following spring they hatch into small larvae, or cater- 

 pillars, which feed upon the glutinous or varnish-like substance which 

 the female moth placed over the eggs, and by that time the buds have 

 usually swollen and expanded enough so that the insects find developing 

 green leaves, upon which they feed. They are able to fast a week or 

 more at this time, which is fortunate for them, because the eggs fre- 

 quently hatch some days before the little green leaves begin to appear. 

 However, these insects frequently make mistakes by hatching out too 

 early, because real late and heavy frosts frequently catch many of them 

 and kill them. 



In a very short time after these larvae begin to feed upon the ex- 

 panding leaves, they crawl down to the nearest fork and spin a silken 

 web across the fork, and in this they gather in order to pass the 

 night and remain during stormy days. They usually leave this wxb or 

 nest about 9 o'clock in the morning, and crawl over the branches in 

 search of the leaves upon which they may feed, coming back to the nest 

 again early in the evening. 



As these larvae become larger they enlarge their nest accordingly. 

 Two full-grown larvae are represented in Fig. 3 a-b, together with n 

 portion of their nest. * . ,. 



A nearly full-grown larva will eat about two leaves per day, and 

 hence one can readily see that as there are upwards of three hundred 

 of these larvae in a colony, it means that about six hundred leaves are re- 

 moved from the tree each day; therefore, the necessity of attending to 

 these insects at once or the trees will sufifer. If a colony of these insects 

 be in a small tree, they may completely defoliate it, or if, as frequently 

 happens, a large tree contains several colonies, they may also defoliate 

 it. This means, of course, that if it be a bearing tree, the fruit will be 

 shed, and what is equally serious, the tree will not make fruit buds for the 

 next year. 



In five or six weeks these larvae become full grown. They then 

 leave the tree and crawl about in search of a suitable place to make a 

 cocoon and transform to the pupa state. They may get under rubbish 

 of various kinds, or sheltered places about the loose bark of the tree, or 

 ^bout fences or similar places, where they construct a silken cocoon, 



