AO INSECTS INJURIOUS ‘TO FOREST AND SHADE TREES. 
INJURING THE LEAVES. 
35. THE FOREST TENT CATERPILLAR. 
Clisiocampa disstria Hiibner; (Clisiocampa sylvatica Harris). 
Order LEPIDOPTERA; family BOMBYCID 23. 
A caterpillar like the apple-tree tent-caterpillar, but differing from it in having a 
row of oval white spots instead of a white stripe along its back; the colony spinning a 
cobweb-like nest against the side of the tree; spinning a whitish cocoon, the moth 
appearing early in July. 
The nests of this caterpillar, unlike the prominent tents of C. americana, 
so abundant in wild-cherry trees and neglected orchards, are seldom 
seen, as they are of so slight a texture and are so much less conspicuous 
objects than the tent-like whitish nests of OC. americana; but the cater- 
pillars are not infrequently met with. After spinning, about the middle 
of June in the Northern States, a dense oblong cocoon, the caterpillar 
lies in it about twenty days, the moth appearing the early part of July. 
It occurs in the Atlantic and Southern States. Fitch states that it also 
occurs on the apple and cherry, the walnut, and other trees. Mr. hiley 
informs me that this is as destructive as any caterpillar to the foliage of 
the oak in the Southern States, being far more injurious than stated by 
Fitch, who quotes with disapproval Abbot’s statement (Insects of Geor- 
gia, p. 117) that they are ‘sometimes so plentiful in Virginia as to strip 
the oak trees bare.” 
The caterpillar.—Pale blue, sprinkled over with black points and dots. Along the 
middle of the back is a row of ten or eleven oval or diamond-shaped white spots; be- 
ly hind each of these spots is a much smaller white spot, occupying the 
middle of each segment. On the hinder part of each wing are three 
crinkled and more or less pale orange-yellow lines, which are edged 
with black. On each side also is a continuous and somewhat broader 
stripe of the same yellow color, 
similarly edged on each side 
with black. Lower down on 
each side of the body is a paler 
yellow or cream-colored stripe, 
the edges of which are more 
jagged and irregular than those 
of the one above it. Length 
1.50 inches. (Fitch.) 
The male moth usually measures 
1.20 across its spread wings. Its 
UH | \ thorax is densely coated with soft 
Fic. 10.—Caterpillar; b, female moth; ¢, d, egg of the oak tent- hairs of a nankin-yellow color. 
caterpillar.—A fter Riley. Its abdomen is covered with 
shorter hairs, which are light umber or cinnamon brown on the back and tip and paler 
or nankin yellow on the sides. The antenne are gray, freckled with brown scales, and 
their branches are very dark brown. The face is brown with the tips of the feelers pale 
gray. The fore wings are gray, varied more or less with nankin yellow, and they are 
divided into three nearly equal portions by two straight dark brown lines, which cross 
them obliquely, parallel with each other and with the hind margin. Thespace between 
these lines is usually brownish and darker than the rest of the wing, being quite often 
A, 
