130 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OP 



THE FALL WEB- WORM— Ilyplmntr la texlor, Harris. 



(Lepidoptera, Arctiida?.) 





With the two preceding caterpillars is often confounded a third 



[Fig. 55.] which in reality has nothing in 



common with them, except that it 



spins a web. The insect I refer to 



is known by the appropriate name 



of Fall Web-worm, and whenever 



we hear accounts of the Tent-cater- 



0| pillars taking possession of trees 



| J and doing great injury in the fall of 



\ I the year (and we do hear such ac- 



■ l Y l counts quite often), we may rest 



" assured that the Fall Web-worm is 



the culprit and has been mistaken for the Tent-caterpillars, which 



never appear at that season of the year. 



I do not know how injurious this insect is in the more Southern 

 St;' - es, but he who travels in the fall of the year, with an eye to the 

 beauties of the landscape, through any of the Northern and Middle 

 States, especially towards the Atlantic sea-board, will find the beauty 

 fearfully marred \>y the innumerable webs or nests of this worm. If 

 they are as common as they were last fall, he will very naturally de- 

 plore the unsightly appearance of the forests, and 'eel amazed at the 

 number of these signs of carelessness and slovenliness which occur 

 in the cultivated orchards ! The Web-worm is found on a great many 

 kinds of trees, though on some more abundantly than others; but 

 with the exception of the different grape-vines, the evergreens, the 

 sumachs and the Ailanthus, scarcely any tree or shrub seems to come 

 amiss to its voracious appetite. This insect passes the winter in the 

 pupa state under ground and the moth emerges during the month of 

 May or as late as the fore part of June. The female deposits her eggs 

 in a cluster on a leaf, generally near the end of a branch, and these 

 eggs hatch during the months of June, July and August, earlier or 

 later, according to the latitude. Each worm begins spinning the 

 moment it is born, and by their united effort they soon cover the leaf 

 with a web, under which they feed in company, devouring only the 

 pulpy portions of the leaf. As they increase in size they extend 

 their web, but always remain and feed underneath it. When young 

 the worn s are pale-yellow with the hairs quite sparse and with two 

 rows of black marks along the body and a black head. When full 

 grown they generally appear pale-yellowish or greenish with a broad 

 dusky stripe along the back and a yellow stripe along the sides, and 

 they are covered with whitish hairs which spring from black and 

 or; nge-yellow warts. Figure 55, a, gives a very good idea of a full 

 grown worm, but the species is very variable both as to depth of color- 

 ing and markings. 



