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tree; but an examination will usually show that it has been 

 fastened in its position by silk threads, and that a cluster of 

 eggs is also present. If the eggs are in plain sight, they are 

 probably those of the old tussock moth (Notolophus anti- 

 quus L.). If only a hard white crust shows, however, in 

 which the eggs are concealed, this is an egg cluster of the 

 white-marked tussock moth (Hemerocampa leucostigma 

 S. & A.). Both of these insects are quite general feeders, 

 but are often found on fruit trees ; and their egg clusters are 

 frequently mistaken for those of the gypsy moth. 



White-marked Tussock Moth. 



The eggs of the white-marked tussock moth are laid in the 

 fall, often on twigs, but perhaps more frequently on the 

 trunk or limbs of the tree on the old cocoons from which 

 the female moths have escaped. The eggs are covered with 

 a white froth which rapidly hardens, forming a crust which 

 entirely conceals the eggs, but which is itself very conspicu- 

 ous. The winter is passed in this condition, the eggs hatch 

 in the spring, and the caterpillars feed upon the leaves until 

 they are full grown, this condition being reached sometime 

 about the middle or end of June. They now spin their co- 

 coons on the trunk, limbs or twigs, and in this stage remain 

 for two or three weeks, at the end of which time the moths 

 escape. 



The male moth is winged, and flies freely ; but the female, 

 being wingless, remains on the cocoon from which she es- 

 caped, and on this cocoon lays her eggs for a second brood, 

 covering them with white froth, and dies upon the completion 

 of this process. 



The eggs thus laid soon hatch, and the caterpillars feed 

 till the middle of August, when they also form cocoons, from 

 which the second brood of moths escapes about the end of 

 the month. Egg laying then follows as before, but these eggs 

 do not hatch till the following spring. Frequently in Massa- 

 chusetts these times of change come a little later, and the 

 eggs laid in summer do not hatch until the following spring, 

 giving us one brood a year instead of two. 



