10 



As soon as any tents are seen in the orchard or elsewhere, they 

 should be crushed with their entire contents, or swabbed down with 

 strong soapsuds or other substance, or torn down with a round bottle- 

 brush, or burned with a torch on the end of a pole. This work of 

 destroying the caterpillars in their tents should be done early in the 

 morning, late in the afternoon or on a cold wet day when they are all 

 in their tents. 



When the trees are infested with canker worms or other leaf -eating 

 insects, as well as tent caterpillars, or when these are numerous, it 

 will be better to spraj' the trees with paris green in water in the pro- 

 portion of one pound of the former to 150 to 250 gallons of the 

 latter. 



THE FALL WEB-WORM. 



Hyphantria cunea, Drury. 



This native American insect is very abundant throughout Massa- 

 chusetts, forming unsightly webs over the ends of the branches of 

 fruit and nearly all other deciduous trees, in August and September, 

 and are supposed by many to be the apple-tree tent-caterpillar, but 

 these form their tents during the • early part of the season, in April 

 and May. 



Fig. 8. Fall Web- Worm. 



a, Moth in position on leaf laying eggs, side view ; b, eggs enlarged.— After Riley. 



The moths are on the wing in July, and lay their eggs, about five 

 hundred in number, in clusters on the leaves near the end of a branch. 

 Fig. 8. These eggs, which are spherical, about one-twentieth of an 

 inch in diameter, and of a bright golden yellow color, have the 

 surface of the shell marked with indentations like the surface of a 

 thimble. They hatch in about a week or ten days and the young 

 caterpillars at once spin a web over themselves, and by their com- 

 bined efforts enclose leaves enough for their present needs, but when 



