290 INSECTS AFFECTING VEGETATION 



the preparation of their winter nest by drawing a few leaves together 

 and lining them with silk, and binding the whole tightly to the 

 twigs. The winter is passed in the immature larval condition 

 within the protection of the soil. 



Early in the spring the caterpillars emerge and if the leaves 

 have not started, begin feeding upon the swelling buds. During 

 the spring they continue their work, completely stripping the tree 

 in cases of severe attack. One brood occurs annually. 



When full grown the caterpillars are I 1 /-} inches long. They 

 are dark brown with a sprinkling of orange. Long, fine, reddish 

 hairs cover the body, and a row of conspicuous white hairs runs 

 along each side. Like the caterpillars of the tussock and gypsy 

 moths, they bear bright red eversible tubercles on the top of the 

 sixth and seventh abdominal segments. 



Besides doing great injury to the trees in badly infested dis- 

 tricts, the caterpillars are equally obnoxious because of the poison- 

 ing effect the spines from the hairs of their bodies have upon human 

 flesh. Contact with the insect's body, with cast skins as they are 

 blown about, with the cocoons or with clothing in which the spines 

 have gained access, may cause the characteristic irritating eruptions. 



The cocoons are placed upon the leaves or in some sheltered 

 position. They are lightly covered with the brown hairs from the 

 tip of the female abdomen. As to food plants, according to Dr. 

 Felt, the insect feeds upon such fruit trees as the pear, apple, plum, 

 and cherry, and upon the following forest trees: oak, maple 

 and elm. 



The remedial measures are comparatively simple, consisting 

 of the collecting and destroying of the conspicuous winter nests. 

 Spraying with arsenicals is also to be relied upon, but the former 

 is preferable because of the smaller expense involved. 



The Gypsy Moth. It was introduced into Medford, Mass., in 

 1868 or 1869, but did not develop in excessive numbers until 1889, 

 when the attacks became very severe in the locality of its intro- 

 duction. 



At that time the state of Massachusetts began making annual 

 appropriations for the purpose of combating the pest and during 

 the nine years following over $1,000,000 was expended. During 

 that time the insect spread slowly, and since 1899, when the appro- 

 priations were discontinued, more rapidly, so that at the present 

 time a considerable area of Massachusetts is infested, and the infes- 

 tation has spread to at least one of the neighboring states (Rhode 

 Island). 



The eggs of this insect are deposited usually in round or oval 

 patches on a piece of bark and then covered with the buff-colored 

 scales from the underside of the female's abdomen. A completed 

 egg-mass looks very much like a small piece of sponge. The egg- 

 mass may be found on stones, in tin cans, and in fact on almost any 

 fixed object near at hand, preferably on the under surface, particu- 

 larly of limbs and fence rails. The nearly globular, pale yellowish 

 or salmon-colored eggs are about one-twentieth of an inch in diam- 



