THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH 



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a mass of black excreta and the cast skins of many of the 

 small caterpillars, for during the warm days of fall the 

 caterpillars feed more or less upon the dead leaves com- 

 posing- the web. and many of them molt in the web. Thus 

 the leaves of the web often become pretty well skeletonized. 



Fig. ■!.— Old web of tent caterpillar. 



Fig. 5.— Web of fall web-worm cover- 

 ing foliage. (After Weed.) 



There are no other webs common on trees which may be 

 mistaken for these. Any webs containing small caterpillars 

 in winter are those of the brown-tail moth. The tent-cater- 

 pillar and fall web-worm both make webs which often 

 remain on the trees over winter, but they are weatherworn, 

 thin webs, with no caterpillars, and are much larger. The 

 curled elm leaves caused by the elm aphis often remain on 

 the trees over winter and may prove misleading to one 



