FAMILY I.ASIOCAMPAD.E. 235 



appear in April or M.i}-. Th( ir habits onalilo us to take advantac^e of tliom, arnl destroy 

 whole liroods at onee : nunibei-s of them retire in a body to their tents at stated timts <f 

 the day, when both houses and inhabitants may l)e destroyed by one sweep with a pole 

 I^roperly ai-med. 



Clisiocampa amekicasa (Harris). ^Imcncan Tent Catirpillar. (Plate xlv, fig. 1.) 

 ( 1'l.itc xlvii, fig. 6 : eggs.) 

 Color rust-brown or retldish brown, variegated with gray especially en the middle and 

 base of the forewings. Anterior wings crossed oblifjuely by two dingy white parallel 

 lines : margin ciliate and whitish. Ilindwings without lines or spots : a portion of 

 the costal margin whitish. Beneath darker. 



The caterpillar has a black head, and its back is marked by a whitish line. On each 

 side of this white line there is a broad longitudinal stripe, formetl by a yellowish ground 

 marked by crinkled lines coalescing below, so as to make a row of spots upon each ring 

 of the body, in the middle of which is a small blue spot : below is a narrow wavy yellow 

 line ; and lower still, the sides are variegated with black and yellow lines. Underside of 

 the body dusky. The eleventh ring Ix-ars a small blackish hairy wart, and the body is 

 sparingly clothed with hairs. 



The caterpillars come to maturity and begin to leave the trees by the middle of Juno ; 

 or, in other words, they then break up their encampment, and each seeks some suitable 

 crevice in which to make its cocoon. 



This is one of the most injurious caterpillars known to infest gardens and orchards. As 

 the eggs are deposited upon the trees, they are enabled, as soon as hatched, to begin their 

 depredations upon the young and tender leaves. We cannot, as in some other instances, 

 prevent the ascent of the young caterj)illars up the trees, for they aie already there ; but 

 we may, after the fall of the leaves, search fur the eggs, which are deposited in quite 

 conspicuous rings around the twigs, and remove them by hand, whereby an entire brood 

 will be totally extirpated ; and if a general attention be given at this period, an orchard 

 need never suffer from the operations of this insect. 



The damage that trees occasionally sutler by neglect is very great ; for the tree, when 

 deprived of its leaves, will die, or else must put Ibrth a new crop, an alternative that 

 seems always to produce a state of great exhaustion, and from w hich the tree scarcely ever 

 entirely recovers. From this cause, when a tree has been neglected for several seasons, and 

 consequently has become stocked with these devourers, it barely sustains itself, and scon 

 shows marks of old age and premature decay : many limbs actually die the first season, 

 and the whole tree wears the apjiearance of poverty and distress. 



The direct means to l>e instituted fur ridding an rreliard nf the^e destructive visitors, 

 must be such as can act upou the whole brood while slieltciod u theix tenia, lliese mcaua 



