490 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



tuft or brush, which gives the insect its name. The wings of the 

 female expand 1 J inches, the males being slightly smaller, and bear 

 one or two streaks of brown on the under sides. The full-grown 

 caterpillar is If inches long, dark brown, marked with a white 

 dash on the side of each segment. The body is dark brown 

 or blackish, well marked with patches of orange and covered with 

 numerous tubercles bearing long barbed hairs. On the centre 

 of the fifth and sixth abdominal segments are small retractile red 

 tubercles. The tubercles along the back and sides are thickly 



r ... ^ covered with short brown 



hairs which give them a vel- 

 vety appearance. These 

 microscopic hairs are 

 barbed and are the nettling 

 hairs which, when they 

 alight on the skin, produce 

 a dermatitis much like that 

 caused by poison ivy. As 

 the cast skins are carried 

 here and there by the wind 

 and the young caterpillars 

 drop from the trees, people 

 are frequently badly 

 poisoned where the pest 

 becomes abundant, so that 

 it is a serious public nuisance 

 as well as as defoliator of fruit and shade trees. The caterpillars 

 prefer fruit trees, pear, wild cherry, and apple being most relished, 

 but become abundant on almost all the common shade trees, 

 except the evergreens, and particularly on oak. 



Life History. The moths emerge in midsummer. They are 

 strong fliers and are readily carried by the wind for many miles. 

 They are attracted to lights in great numbers, so that they are 

 more abundant in cities and villages. Late in July the eggs are 

 laid on the terminal leaves, 300 or 400 being laid in an elongate 

 mass and covered with brown hairs from the tip of the female's 

 abdomen. They hatch in about three weeks and the young larvse 

 feed on the surface of the leaves, leaving only the brown skeletons, 

 so that badly infested trees turn brown in early fall. The cater- 



FIG. 414. Winter we b f the brown-tail 

 moth bearing young larvse which have 

 emerged before the foliage has appeared 

 and are feeding on the dead leaves of 

 the nest two-thirds natural size. 



