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THE TENT-CATERPILLARS— AN AFTERMATH. 



A. F. Winn, Westmount. 



I hope you will not think it is my intention to try to say anything 

 about either these caterpillars or the moths they produce. Anyone who 

 has read a very small proportion of the articles which have been published 

 in magazines, pamphlets, bulletins and weekly and daily newspapers has 

 surely been favoured with a great deal of information about their natural 

 history and perhaps even more unnatural history, and the insects them' 

 selves will continue to visit us in varying degrees of abundance and rarity. 



Looking back to 1914, we will perhaps remember, or find some notes 

 to the effect, that these caterpillars did not do much damage about Montreal 

 as their enemies had at last got the better of them; while the previous 

 year, in the earlier months of their activity, they threatened to eat up 

 all before them, their hosts rivalling, if not exceeding, those of 1912. 



Diagram showing duration of the different stages of the Tent-Caterpillar. 



Now it would be very satisfactory from a horticultural standpoint, 

 if we could think that man could claim to have contributed, if even in a 

 very small degree, towards ridding us of these plagues; but with all his 

 wealth and boasted knowledge, such is not the case. It is quite true 

 that by an almost elementary knowledge of the habits and vulnerable 



