17 
not guard too carefully against the accidental importation of this 
insect pest, as it is widespread in Europe, breeding abundantly on 
hedges, trees, and various shrubs, and making its way into the 
nursery from infested surroundings. 
The brown-tail feeds upon practically all deciduous trees and 
many shrubs and even upon herbs. Thousands of fruit trees in 
the vicinity of Boston have been killed by it, and damage to maples 
and elms in wooded regions has caused the forest to appear brown 
in June, an injury which, if repeated for three or four years, has 
killed many trees. As the caterpillars pass the winter about a cpar- 
ter grown, they begin to devour the leaves of trees as soon as these 
put out in spring, and even eat the buds and blossoms before the 
leaves have spread. Old trees may thus lose all their buds, or, if 
not, the foliage itself may be devoured at a later date. 
The caterpillar reaches its full size in New England during the 
last half of June, and the moths emerging, fly about and lay their 
eggs some tw-enty days later. The small round eggs are laid in 
brownish masses (Fig. 15) on the under side of leaves, each mass 
FiA.15. Brown-tail moth, Eiiproctis chrys- 
orrhceo,, ee:g masses on leaves. Natural size. 
(Connecticut Experiment Station.) 
two-thirds of an inch long by a fourth of an inch wide, and con- 
taining about three hundred eggs. The full-grown caterpillar is 
about two inches long, reddish-brown, with an interrupted 
white stripe on each side and two red dots on the back near 
the hind end. It is also blotched with orange and is cov- 
ered with tubercles bearing long barbed hairs, those on the 
back and sides with short brown hairs additional, which give 
them, when magnified, a velvetlike look. The young hiber- 
nating larvse are blackish, with reddish-black hairs and black 
heads. The pupa is formed among the leaves on the infested tree 
or shrub, most frequently at the tips of the branches, where sev- 
eral caterpillars may spin a loose web together, each forming, how- 
