LEPIDOPTERA. 263 



tussock-moth. It is to the eggs of this insect that the late Mr. B. 

 H. Ives, of Salem, alludes, in an article on " insects which infest 

 trees and plants," published in Hovey's " Gardener's Maga- 

 zine"*. Mr. Ives states, that on passing through an apple orch- 

 ard in February, he " perceived nearly all the trees speckled 

 with occasional dead leaves, adhering so firmly to the branches as 

 to require considerable force to dislodge them. Each leaf cov- 

 ered a small patch of from one to two hundred eggs, united 

 together, as well as to the leaf, by a gummy and silken fibre, pe- 

 culiar to the moth." In March he " visited the same orchard, 

 and, as an experiment, cleared three trees, from which he took 

 twenty-one bunches of eggs. The remainder of the trees he left 

 untouched until the tenth of May, when he found the caterpillars 

 were hatched from the egg, and had commenced their slow but 

 sure ravages. He watched them from time to time, until many 

 branches had been spoiled of their leaves, and in the autumn were 

 entirely destitute of fruit ; while the three trees, which had been 

 stripped of the eggs, were flush with foliage, each limb without 

 exception, ripening its fruit." These pertinent remarks point 

 out the nature and extent of the evil, and suggest the proper 

 remedy to be used against the ravages of these insects. 



In the New England States there is found a tussock or vaporer 

 moth, seemingly the same as the Orgyia antiqua^ the antique or 

 rusty vaporer-moth of Europe, from whence, possibly its eggs 

 may have been brought with imported fruit-trees. The male moth 

 is of a rust-brown color, the fore-wings are crossed by two deeper 

 brown wavy streaks, and have a white crescent near the hind 

 angle. They expand about one inch and one eighth. The 

 female is gray, and wingless, or with only two minute scales on 

 each side in the place of wings, and exactly resembles in shape 

 the female of the foregoing species. The caterpillar is yellow on 

 the back, on which are four short square brush-like yellow tufts ; 

 the sides are dusky and spotted with red ; there are two long 



extended The Germans call these moths strechfitssige Spinner, the French 

 pattcs 6tendues, and the English vaporer-moths, the latter probably because the 

 males are seen flying about ostentatiously, or vaporing, by day, when most other 

 moths keep concealed. 

 * Vol. 1 , p. 52. 



