538 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



The Tent Caterpillar * 



From the earliest times the webs of the tent caterpillar have 

 adorned the neglected, wayside apple and cherry trees in all 

 parts of the country east of the Rocky Mountains. On the 

 Pacific coast a nearly related species has very similar habits. 

 The adult moths are common in July in the North or in May in 

 the Gulf States. They are stout-bodied, of a reddish-brown 

 color, with two nearly parallel white bands extending obliquely 

 across the fore-wings. The females have a wing expanse of about 

 1J inches, while the males are smaller and may be distinguished 

 by their feathery antennae. The sexes soon mate and the females 

 deposit their eggs about five or six weeks after apples blossom. 

 The egg-mass is from one-half to three-quarters inch long and 

 forms a grayish-brown, knot-like band around the twig on which 

 it is laid, closely resembling the bark in color. Each mass con- 

 tains about 200 eggs, placed on end, packed closely together and 

 covered with a light brown, frothy glue, which gives a tough, 

 smooth, glistening surface to the whole mass. The little cater- 

 pillars hatch just as the leaf buds are expanding in the spring. 

 Ofttimes they emerge before the leaf-buds have expanded suf- 

 ficiently to furnish any food, in which case they satisfy their 

 hunger with the glutinous covering of the egg-mass, spinning a 

 thin web over it. Soon they are able to bore into the buds and 

 a web is commenced at the nearest crotch. Wild cherry and 

 apple are the favorite food-plants and are often stripped of their 

 foliage year after year, but all of the common fruit trees are more 

 or less frequented, and when very abundant the common shade 

 trees are attacked and occasionally one is defoliated. The little 

 caterpillars from one egg-mass cooperate in spinning the tent 

 which furnishes them shelter at night and during cold or wet 

 weather. This is gradually enlarged with new layers of silk, 

 the caterpillars living beneath the outer layers. The caterpil- 

 lars are grown in five or six weeks, when they become exceed- 

 ingly restless and wander away from the nest in search of suit- 

 able places for spinning their cocoons. The full-grown caterpil- 

 lar is about two inches long, deep black in color, sparsely covered 

 with yellowish hairs, with a white stripe down the middle of 



* Malacasoma americana Fab. Family Lasiocompidce. See A. L. Quaint- 

 ance, Farmers' Bulletin 662, U. S. Dept. Agr.; V. H. Lowe, Bulletin 152, 

 N. Y. Agr. Exp. Sta.; E. P. Felt, 14th Report State Ent. N. Y., pp. 177-190. 



