C578 ; Issued January 28, 1908. 
0. 98. 
nited States Department of Agriculture, 
BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY, 
L. O. HOWARD, Entomologist and Chief of Bureau. 
THE APPLE-TREE TENT CATERPILLAR. 
(Malacosoma americana Fab.) 
By A. L. QUAINTANCE, 
In Charge of Deciduous Fruit Insect Investigations. 
The conspicuous, unsightly nests or tents of this insect (fig. 2) 
are familiar objects in the spring in trees along roadways, streams, 
fences, in neglected orchards, and elsewhere. The gregarious cat- 
erpillars construct the tents for their protection, and these, at first 
small, are gradually enlarged as the larve grow, often to a foot 
or more in height and diameter, the size varying with the number 
Stages of the apple-tree tent caterpillar: a, Egg mass; b, larva; e¢, pupa; d, 
cocoon; 2, female moth; ¢%, male moth. About natural size (original). 
Fic. 1. 
of individuals in the colony. The caterpillars feed upon the foli- 
age of the trees, stripping the leaves from the limbs adjacent to the 
nest, and if there be several colonies in a tree, as is frequently the 
case during periods of abundance, the foliage may be quite destroyed, 
leaving the branches as bare as in midwinter. 
21667— No. 98S——OS 
