THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH 109 



granges, schoolteachers and others, so that everyone was 

 awake to the necessity of controlling the pest by removing 

 the winter webs. As a result the webs were very generally 

 destroyed throughout the southern part of the state, this 

 being aided with appropriations by many of the towns. To 

 this effective work is undoubtedly due the fact that there 

 was not more spread in 1905. Examination made by my 

 assistant, J. L. Kandall, shows that the northernmost limits 

 of infestation have not been extended, though rather more 

 webs are found at Laconia and other towns in that latitude, 

 while to the southwest only one row of towns further west 

 were found to be infested as far as we have been able to 

 determine from a hurried inspection, including Hancock, 

 Bennington and Antrim. Keene and Marlborough seem to 

 be uninfested. Reinfestation has undoubtedly taken place 

 from the southern part of New Hampshire and Massachu- 

 setts by moths flying northward during the past summer, 

 for in many places the infestation is more serious in Jan- 

 uary, 1906, than in January, 1905, though the nests were 

 carefully removed very generally over the towns. This is 

 noticeably so in Durham. This but emphasizes the neces- 

 sity for requiring all towns to control the pest within their 

 borders. 



LIFE HISTORY. 



The Winter Webs, or Nests. — During the winter the well- 

 known webs of the brown-tail moth caterpillars are to be 

 found on the tips of the twigs of fruit and shade trees. 

 Typical examples are shown in figure 2. 



These webs are usually about three or four inches long, 

 composed of leaves woven together with silk, which forms a 

 firm, tough web. The whole nest is often attached to the 

 twig by the stems of the leaves, which have been worked 

 into it, the stems being wound round and round with silk 

 and this being continued onto the twig, as shown in the 

 figure. If a nest be torn open it will be found to contain 

 numerous little round, white, silky masses, looking like 



