112 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
alone makes the matter of much greater importance, since vessels 
would afford the insect excellent opportunities to extend its range 
in this country, and there would be much greater difficulty, if it 
should become at all abundant, in limiting the spread of the 
species than was the case with the gipsy moth. 
The parent insects are said to fly during July and August. 
The moths are a grayish or yellowish white, irregularly marked 
on the fore wings with dark brown or black, as shown on plate 
6, figure 2. The hind wings are a pearly gray and margined 
with grayish brown spots. The abdomen is transversely marked 
with more or less distinct black bands interspersed with a 
reddish or rosy hue. The female has a wing spread of nearly 2 
inches and the male about an inch and a half. The latter may be 
recognized by its smaller size and the pectinate antennae. 
The larva has been described by Furneaux as follows: ‘“ The 
caterpillar is hairy, and of a grayish white color. A brown stripe 
runs down the back. On the top of the second segment are two 
blue tubercles; and there is also a tubercle, of a reddish color, 
on each of the ninth, 10th and 11th segments.” 
The larva has been recorded as feeding on a number of trees, 
notably oak, birch, fir, pine and apple, becomes full grown in 
June or July, and is specially injurious to spruce forests. 
This species, as recorded by Myrick, is sometimes exceedingly 
destructive to fir forests on the continent, stripping the trees so 
completely as to kill them. A more detailed account of what this 
insect will do is given by Professor Fernow, now director of the 
New York State College of Forestry. He states’ that the rav- 
ages of this insect in Europe from 1853 to 1867 involved an area 
of over 100,000 square miles and destroyed 55,000,000 cords of 
wood, necessitating the premature cutting of 7,000,000 cords to 
save it from subsequent attack by bark beetles. The attack in 
1891 at first involved some 20,000 acres of spruce in upper 
Bavaria, but soon reports were received from all parts of Ger- 
many, Austria, Bohemia, etc., indicating an unusual abundance 
of the insect, so that many thousand square miles of forest were 
involved. Over $8000 were spent in the first named district in 
checking the ravages of the insect, and a special committee was 


Insect Life. 1891. 3: 370. 
