558 NEW JERSEY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



What may happen in even a single season is recorded by Professor 

 Tu'i-nald in 1898. At the time that the species was first discovered as 

 being present in considerable numbers, the area in which serious 

 damage had been done was nearly circular in outline, with a diameter 

 of about a mile, and the flying season, which is of limited duration, was 

 at hand. It was exceedingly fortunate that a severe gale of wind 

 occurred at the height of this season in 1897, which distributed these 

 moths for a distance of ten or twelve miles to the north and northeast. 

 Records are given showing the direction of the wind during the day. 

 a matter which is of little importance in view of the fact that the 

 insects fly only at night ; but the records of the night wind directions 

 correspond perfectly with the observed distribution of the insects dur- 

 ing the next season. 



In Europe the moth occurs almost everywhere, except in the ex- 

 treme north, and extends to Morocco, Algeria and Asia Minor. In 

 Great Britain it was formerly much more abundant than it is at the 

 present time, and so far as records go it is never injurious to culti- 

 vated crops. There is nothing in the history of this insect that leads 

 to the belief that it is not quite capable of maintaining itself through- 

 out the entire Northern Atlantic States, and, of course, including the 

 entire State of New Jersey. 



As to its food plants, it lives on a great variety of both wild and 

 cultivated plants, including all the ordinary orchard fruits and most 

 of the common forest trees. Its favorite is perhaps the pear, among 

 the orchard fruits, and such trees will be covered with webs where 

 neighboring apple trees will be comparatively free. 



Life History. 



The moths a^re on the wing about the middle of July, and each 

 female lays from 200 to 300 eggs in an oblong cluster on the under 

 side of the leaf, near the end of a branch, covering them with a dense 

 mass of brown hair from the tip of the abdomen. The moths expand 

 from an inch to an inch and a half, the males being the smaller, and 

 are pure white in color. In the female the abdomen is much larger 

 than it is in the male, and at the tip of both there is a round, dense 

 tuft of brown hair, which gives the common name "brown-tail" to the 

 insect. The moths are attracted to light, and I have seen photographs 

 made of an electric light pole with the insects so densely clustered 



