18 DANGER OF SPREAD OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 
cars may have been sidetracked near an infested place long enough to pee! laying 
of the eggs upon them. 
It is by these methods that the comparatively rapid spread of the insect previously 
noticed, during the years 1900-1905, is to be explained. 
Damage to Plants. 
The larva of the gipsy moth feeds upon the foliage of practically all orchard trees, 
all shade and ornamental trees, all out-of-door shrubs, and all forest trees. Not only 
are the deciduous forest trees stripped, but the coniferous trees as well. In June and 
July patches of forests in the infested territory are stripped of every green leaf and 
the trees appear as bare as in winter. After several such consecutive strippings, 
deciduous forest and shade trees are killed, but with a coniferous tree, such as a pine, 
hemlock, or spruce, one complete stripping will cause death. It is this fact which 
makes the gipsy moth so much more serious a pest than the brown-tail moth, and 
the loss which will result from its spread into northern New England will be very 
great, owing to the enormous coniferous forest interests in that part of the country. 
In cities and towns the insect does damage not only by destroying all vegetation, 
but by swarming in numbers upon and about houses, frequently entering them. It 
has been the experi- 
ence in eastern Mas- 
sachusetts that where 
a locality becomes 
thoroughly infested 
the value of real es- 
tate rapidly depreci- 
ates, and it becomesa 
matter of difficulty to 
rent or sell property. 
Among its food 
plants the gipsy moth 
caterpillar seems to 
Fi. 3.—Pupa of the gipsy moth. Natural size, (From Insect Life) | prefer apple, white 
oak, red oak, willow, 
and elm, but those who have studied it most carefully in Massachusetts say that 
it will on occasion devour almost every useful grass, plant, flower, shrub, vine, bush, 
garden, or field crop that grows in the State. 
THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH. 
The brown-tail moth ( Huproctis chrysorrhea L.) was imported by 
a florist in Somerville, a suburb of Boston, about 20 years ago, 
probably on roses from Holland or France. Its presence was not 
discovered until 1897, when it had already gained such headway that 
extermination was out of the question. Since 1907 it has rapidly 
spread, and its range now includes much of the coastal area of New 
England, including eastern Rhode Island, the eastern half of Massa- 
chusetts, the eastern half of New Hampshire, and the southern half 
of Maine. Both sexes are strong fliers, and the prevailing winds dur- 
ing the flying season (July) have carried the insect northward and 
eastward, rather than southward and westward. Moths of this 
species have been taken as far away from Boston as St. Johns, New 
Brunswick. 
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