62 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE APPLE. 



Fig. 55. 



the loaves, along the margin.s of which appears a row of 

 shining black heads, with each mouth busily engaged in de- 

 vouring the portion near it, and when 

 the meal is finished they arrange 

 themselves side by side along the 

 branches which they have stripped. 

 If one branch does not afford food 

 enough, they attack another; and 

 when full grown and ready to trans- 

 form, they nearly all leave tiie tree 

 at the same time, descending by night 

 to the ground, where they burrow 

 under the surface to the depth of from two to four inches, 

 and after a time cast their caterpillar skins and become 

 naked, brown chrysalids. They remain in the pupa state 

 until the following July, when the moths escape and take 

 wing. 



Although sometimes very abundant and destructive, this 

 insect is not usually very common ; some years a few clusters 

 may be seen, and then several seasons may })ass before they 

 are met with again. The naicedness of the limbs they attack 

 soon attracts attention, when the caterpillars may be easily 

 destroyed by crushing them on the tree, or by cutting off the 

 branches and throwing them into the fire. A small Ichneu- 

 mon parasite is known to prey on them, which may in some 

 measure account for the irregularity of their appearance. 



Ifo. 24. — The Red-humped Apple-tree Caterpillar. 



(Edemasia concinna (Sra. & Abb.). 



This insect very much resembles in habits the yellow- 

 necked apple-tree caterpillar (No. 23). 



The moth (Fig. 56) appears about the Last of June. The 

 fore wings are dark brown on the inner, and grayish on the 

 outer margin, with a dot near the middle, a spot near each 

 angle, and several longitudinal streaks along the hind margin, 

 all dark brown. The hind wings of the male are brownish, 



