REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 1918 55 
it was a matter of record in early and mid-July. This insect and the 
yellow-necked caterpillars became so abundant that a special circular 
was issued the first of August. Subsequent evidence fully demon- 
strated the value of the warning since there was almost unprece- 
dented stripping of young and even moderately small trees. The 
yellow-necked caterpillars continued numerous until the middle of 
September. The damage to many young trees is so great that 
extensive winter killing may occur, specially if the cold is unusual. 
The moths of both species fly in midsummer and later deposit 
their whitish eggs in clusters on the underside of the leaves. The 
caterpillars are gregarious and when young skeletonize the foliage, 
though they soon commence to devour the entire leaf and their 
presence is easily recognized by the stripped or partly defoliated 
branches or even entire trees. The caterpillars of both species are 
easily distinguished from other common apple insects by the peculiar 
habit of elevating both extremities when alarmed and, as the pests 
are usually in clusters, the effect is grotesque and somewhat suggestive 
of a cluster of strange flowers. Young yellow-necked apple cater- 
pulars are chestnut brown with obscure darker stripes and as they 
increase in size the body is distinctly striped with black and yellow 
and sparsely clothed with rather long, whitish hairs. The red- 
humped apple caterpillars are likewise striped and are easily dis- 
tinguished by the coral red head, the similar colored swelling on the 
third thoracic segment and the red posterior extremity. This cater- 
pillar has a series of short, black tubercles and is not hairy. Both 
of these caterpillars are about 13 inches long when full grown. The 
yellow-necked caterpillars winter in the soil and the red-humped ones 
in cocoons under trash on the ground, the moths of each not issuing 
until the following season. 
These pests are easily controlled by spraying with a poison and 
under present conditions it is advisable to protect young trees from 
these and associated depredators by spraying about the first of August 
with arsenate of lead, using 2 pounds of the paste to 50 gallons of 
water. 
Apple and thorn skeletonizer. (Hemerophila pariana 
Clerck). The establishment of this insect in Westchester and Rock- 
land counties was recorded in Cornell Extension Bulletin 27 and in 
the report of this office for last year. Both these publications contain 
extended accounts to which the reader is referred for additional 
details. Reports received the past season indicate the occurrence of 
the insect north from Yonkers to Yorktown Heights. It is probable 
that there has been some extension of territory during the season 
