FOREST INSECTS AND FUNGI 115 



BROWN-TAIL MOTH (Euproctis chrysorrhcea). 



Form of Damage. Like the gipsy moth this insect defoliates 

 both forest and fruit trees, but apparently does not attack 

 conifers. Of forest trees, it prefers oak, maple and elm. Be- 

 sides the damage to trees the hairs from the caterpillars are 

 exceedingly irritating and poisonous to some people, and often 

 cause severe illness. 



Appearance. The most conspicuous indication of this 

 insect's presence, and one which distinguishes it at once from 

 the gipsy moth, is the webs on the terminal twigs in which the 

 partly grown caterpillars spend the winter. The male moth 

 is pure white with a wing spread of about one and a fourth 

 inches, and has a conspicuous reddish-brown tuft at the tip 

 of the abdomen from which it gets its name. The female is 

 somewhat larger, but is the same color as the male except 

 that the tuft is larger and of lighter color. The full-grown 

 caterpillars range from one to one and a fourth inches in 

 length. 



Life History. The winter is passed in the partly grown 

 caterpillar stage as indicated above. These begin work early 

 in the spring feeding downward from the tips of the branches, 

 and leaving the naked twigs and their gray tents as evidence of 

 their sojourn. When numerous, they will devour green fruit 

 as well as leaves and buds and blossoms. A number of cater- 

 pillars frequently pupate in a common cocoon of dry leaves at 

 the tips of the branches and sometimes in masses under fences, 

 clapboards or on the trunks of trees. They pupate in June 

 usually. Their webs may be distinguished from those of the 

 tent caterpillar which are always at the forks of the branches. 

 The eggs are laid during July in masses composed of two hun- 

 dred to three hundred, usually on the under side of leaves. 

 These eggs which are covered with fine brown hairs hatch in a 

 short time and the young marauders live on the foliage until it 

 is time for them to make their winter tents. 



Treatment. As their hibernating nests are conspicuous, 



