220 VAPORER MOTH ITS EGGS TO BE DESTROYED. 



ent, forming but a single dot, which is slightly elongated. When preserved in 

 balsam of fir this spider retains the black dots and pale rings and band, but 

 the abdomen changes to a bright blood red and the thorax and legs to a honey 

 yellow color. 



In a few other instances dead leaves will be found upon the 

 apple and other trees during the winter; but these are chiefly 

 single leaves at the tip ends of the twigs, which had withered 

 prematurely from being infested with plant lice, and will not be 

 liable to be mistaken for the work of the vaporer moth. One of 

 the most remarkable pieces of mechanism may be met with upon 

 the sycamore or button wood, where the dead leaf is drawn to- 

 gether in such a manner as to form a little wheel, whirling 

 around and sliding up and down upon the last joint of the twig, 

 the bud at the end of the twig forming a knob or button which 

 prevents this wheel from sliding off its axle, and a tube or socket 

 in its centre the fourth of an inch long serves as a hub, prevent- 

 ing it from turning askew. It appears to be an insect, perhaps 

 a species of plant louse, which draws the sycamore leaf around 

 the twig in this truly curious manner. 



Care should be taken to rid fruit trees especially from the 

 vaporer moth; for whenever one of these insects takes up its 

 abode upon a tree, a part at least of its progeny will be apt to 

 remain for several generations, sustaining themselves at the ex- 

 pense of the tree. In the winter, or before the foliage puts forth 

 in spring, search should be made for their nests of eggs. They 

 will be much more readily discovered than those of the common 

 caterpillar. Occasionally a cocoon will be met with having no 

 eggs upon it. In this the chrysalis is still lying unhatched, or a 

 male moth has been given out from it. It will be the safest 

 course to strip the trees of all the cocoons found upon them, 

 whether covered with eggs and foam or not, tearing them off 

 from the larger limbs and cutting off the smaller twigs to which 

 they are attached, and throwing the whole into the fire. No 

 one but the veriest sloven will permit his fruit trees to be depre- 

 dated upon by insects which can be so easily subdued as the va- 

 porer moth. 



