APPLE INSECTS — BUDS AND FOLIAGE 137 



foliage. In early spring, just as the buds are bursting, the 

 caterpillars leave their winter quarters and resume feeding 

 on the unfolding leaves, and if abundant may keep the trees 

 stripped of foliage. They molt four or five times in the spring 

 and become mature toward the last of .Jun(\ The full-grown 

 caterpillar (Fig. 149) is about Ih inches in hmgth, nearly black 

 in ground color, 

 clothed with tufts 

 of brownish 

 barbed hairs and 

 has a row of nearly 

 white tufts on 

 each side of the 

 body; there is a 

 coral-red tubercle 

 on the dorsum of 

 the nth and 12th 

 segments. When 

 mature the cater- 

 pillars spin loosely 

 woven cocoons in 



, , - Fig. 150. — Winter nest of the iHown-tail moth. 



curled leaves, 



crevices in bark of trees, or under any convenient shelter ; they 

 are usually found in masses. The pupse are about f inch 

 in length and dark brown in color. The pupal period averages 

 about 20 days. 



Control. 



As an orchard pest, the brown-tail moth can be most readily 

 controlled by collecting and burning the conspicuous hibernating 

 nests during the winter months. The newly-hatched caterpillars 

 can be killed the first or second week in August by a thorough 

 application of arsenate of lead, 8 pounds in 100 gallons of 

 water. Attempts to poison the over-wintering caterpillars, 

 when they appear on the buds in the spring, are not so success- 



