172 The Farm Woodlot 



Owing to the flying abilities of the female, the spread has 

 been very rapid. It now infests about the same territory 

 as the gipsy moth. 



The winter webs, three or four inches long, may be 

 found on the tips of the twigs of fruit and shade trees. 

 They are composed of silk and leaves woven into a tough 

 net which is bound to the twig by silk and leaf stems. 

 This is filled with a mass of small, brown, hairy cater- 

 pillars -J- inch long. The little caterpillars emerge late 

 in April and early May and attack the opening buds. 

 These nests contain 400 to 900 caterpillars. These are of 

 a blackish color, covered with warm brown or reddish 

 brown hairs. The head is jet black, while the body is 

 marked with yellow. Projecting from the back of the 

 fourth and fifth segments is a large tuft of reddish brown 

 hairs looking like a brush, and two-thirds the height of the 

 body. On the middle line of both the ninth and tenth 

 segments is an orange or coral red retractile tubercle. By 

 the second week in June the caterpillar has attained its 

 full growth, 1 to 1J inches in length, and has molted three 

 or four times. Its head is then a pale brown, mottled 

 with darker brown. The body is a dark brown or black, 

 well marked with patches of orange and covered with 

 some cross tubercles bearing long barbed hairs. The 

 white dashes along the sides of the abdomen are more 

 prominent and enable the immediate identification of 

 the caterpillar. During the second week in June they 

 pupate, spinning their cocoons of white silk among the 

 leaves. This stage lasts about twenty days. Most 

 of the moths emerge during the second week of July. 

 They usually emerge late in the afternoon and are ready 



