434 COMMON APPLE-TREE CATERPILLAR. 



its most active enemies is the common lady-bug. 

 This bug grasps the lice, and sucks out all their 

 juices, leaving nothing but the skin. But while they 

 have so many enemies, they also have friends and 

 protectors. These are large black or reddish ants, 

 which run over their backs and tickle them, induc- 

 ing them to exude a drop of sweet fluid, which the 

 ant consumes. The lice do not seem to flourish as 

 well where the ants are not their attendants. 



As these insects attack only the tips of the 

 shoots, where the skin is young and tender, the best 

 method of destroying them, if the tree is small, is 

 to immerse the shoot in a pail of water in which 

 a piece of whale-oil soap of the size of the fist has 

 been dissolved (Fitch). 



(2) Common Apple-free Caterpillar — Clisiocampa 

 America?ia. The territory which is the theatre of 

 operations for this worm is extensive. Although it 

 can subsist upon the leaf of almost any species of 

 the order of Rosaceae, yet it always chooses first 

 the wild cherry, then the apple. Dr. Fitch, of New 

 York, attached nests of them to trees and bushes 

 of various kinds, and found, while they generally 

 existed, that they did by no means flourish, and did 

 not become strong enough to spin cocoons. The 

 seasons which are the most propitious for fruit, are 

 also for the development of these as well as of other 

 insects. This is a sage provision ; otherwise our 

 whole crop might be destroyed in an unfavorable 



