212 THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



In all twenty-five towns were probably newly infested 

 during the summer or the area infested in New Hampshire 

 increased about twenty per cent. On the north the 

 moths crossed Lake Winnepesaukee and are not diffi- 

 cult to find along' its northern shore and in southern Sand- 

 wich. The moths came into Meredith and Plymouth in 

 large flights in mid-July. Webs were not found in Camp- 

 ton and it seems probable that the mountains with a scarcity 

 of fruit and deciduous trees for food will make further 

 spread much slower. Eight towns were examined in 

 Cheshire County and Claremont and Newport in Sullivan 

 County, but no webs were found. 



Present Condition in Towns Previously Infested. 



Throughout the coast towns where the moth has been 

 longest and is therefore most abundant the heavy rains of 

 May and June furnished ideal conditions for the growth of 

 a fungus disease which destroyed thousands of the cater- 

 pillars. This disease was not so noticeable ten or fifteen 

 miles back from the coast, and will probably be equally 

 effective only under similar weather conditions, which are 

 abnormal. 



During January, 1906, there was a period of unusually 

 warm weather, which it was asserted by the daity papers, 

 would cause the young caterpillars to emerge from their 

 winter webs. We were unable to find any which did so 

 emerge and experiments conducted by us in subjecting win- 

 ter webs to a greenhouse temperature and thus securing 

 their emergence show that it would require a much longer 

 period of such weather to cause the caterpillars to emerge 

 even much later in the spring. 



In general the winter webs are very much more abundant 

 over the area infested in 1905 than they were a year ago. 

 For even where the webs were almost entirelv removed from 

 fruit and shade trees in the winter of 1905 and 1906, the 

 moths flew in July, 1906, from to^vns which had failed to 



