INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



of September; and these eggs are not hatched till the follow- 

 ing summer. The name of this moth is Orgyia* leucostigma^ 

 the white-marked Orgyia or 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," pub- 

 lished in Hovey's "Gardener's Magazine."! Mr. Ives states, 

 that on passing through an apple orchard in February, he 

 " perceived nearly all the trees speckled with occasional dead 

 leaves, adhering so firmly to the branches as to require consid- 

 erable force to dislodge them. Each leaf covered a small 

 patch of from one to two hundred eggs, united together, as 

 well as to the leaf, by a gummy and silken fibre, peculiar 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 cater- 

 pillars 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 possi- 

 bly 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 



* This name is derived from a word which signifies to stretch out the hands, 

 and it is applied to this kind of moth on account of its resting with the fore legs 

 extended. The Germans call these moths streckfilssige Spinner, the French 

 pattes itendues, 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. 



t Vol. I., p. 52. 



