CATERPILLAR. 



CATERPILLAR. 



spreading, silky hairs proceed, are black on 

 the back, and rust-yellow or orange on the 

 sides. The head and feet are black. I have 

 not observed the exact length of time required 

 by these insects to come to maturity ; but to- 

 wards the end of August and during the month 

 of September they leave the trees, disperse, 

 and wander about, eating such plants as hap- 

 pen to lie in their course, till they have found 

 suitable places of shelter and concealment, 

 where they make their thin and almost trans- 

 parent cocoons, composed of a slight web of 

 silk intermingled with a few hairs. They re- 

 main in the cocoons in the chrysalis state 

 through the winter, and are transformed to 

 moths in the months of June and July. These 

 moths are white, and without spots ; the fore- 

 thighs are tawny-yellow, and the feet blackish. 

 Their wings expand from one inch and a 

 quarter to one inch and three-eighths. 



" During the months of July and August, 

 there may be found on apple trees and rose- 

 bushes, and sometimes on other trees and 

 shrubs, little slender caterpillars of a brigh 

 yellow colour, sparingly clothed with long and 

 fine yellow hairs on the sides of the body, and 

 having four short and thick brush-like yellow 

 ish tufts on the back, that is on the fourth and 

 three following rings, two long black plumes or 

 pencils extending forwards from the first ring, 

 and a single plume on the top of the eleventh 

 ring. The head, and the two little retractile 

 warts on the ninth and tenth rings are coral 

 red ; there is a narrow black or brownish 

 stripe along the top of the back, and a wider 

 dusky stripe on each side of the body. These 

 pretty caterpillars do not ordinarily herd to- 

 gether, but sometimes our apple trees are 

 much infested by them, as was the case in the 

 summer of 1828. When they have done eat- 

 ing, they spin their cocoons on the leaves, or 

 on the branches or trunks of the trees, or on 

 fences in the vicinity. The chrysalis is not 

 only beset with little hairs or down, but has 

 three oval clusters of branny scales on the 

 back. In about eleven days after the change 

 to the chrysalis is effected, the last transforma- 

 tion follows, and the insects come forth in the 

 adult state, the females wingless, and the 

 males with large ashen-gray wings, crossed 

 by wavy darker bands on the upper pair, on 

 which, moreover, is a small black spot near 

 the tip, and a minute white crescent near the 

 outer hind angle. The body of the male is 

 small and slender, with a row of little tufts 

 along the back, and the wings expand one 

 inch and three-eighths. The females are of a 

 lighter gray colour than the males, their bodies 

 are very thick, and of an oblong oval shape, 

 and, though seemingly wingless, upon close 

 examination two little scales, or stinted wing- 

 lets, can be discovered on each shoulder. 

 These females lay their eggs upon the top of 

 their cocoons, and cover them with a large 

 quantity of frothy matter, which on drying be- 

 comes white and brittle. Different broods of 

 these insects appear at various times in the 

 course of the summer, but the greater number 

 come to maturity and lay their ergs in the lat- 

 ter part of August, and the beginning of Sep- 

 tember ; and these eggs are not hatched till 

 279 



the following summer. The name of this 

 moth is Orgyia* leucostigma, the white-marked 

 Orgyia or tussock-moth. It is to the eggs of 

 this'insect that the late Mr. B. H. Ives, of Sa- 

 lem, alludes, in an article on ' insects which 

 infest trees and plants,' published in Hovey's 

 'Gardener's Magazine.' Mr. Ives states, that 

 on passing through an apple orchard in Feb- 

 ruary, he 'perceived nearly all the trees 

 speckled with occasional dead leaves, adher- 

 ing so firmly to the branches as to require 

 considerable force to dislodge them. Each 

 leaf covered a small patch of from one to two 

 hundred eggs, united together, as well as to 

 the leaf, by a gummy and silken fibre, peculiar 

 to the moth.' In March, he 'visited the same 

 orchard, and, as an experiment, cleared three 

 trees, from which he took twenty-one bunches 

 of eggs. The remainder of the trees he left 

 untouched until the tenth of May, when he 

 found the caterpillars were hatched from the 

 egg, and had commenced their slow but sure 

 ravages. He watched them from time to 

 time, until many branches had been spoiled 

 of their leaves, and in the autumn were en- 

 tirely destitute of fruit ; while the three trees, 

 which had been stripped of the eggs, were 

 llush with foliage, each limb without exception 

 ripening its fruit.' These pertinent remarks 

 point out the nature and extent of the evil, and 

 suggest the proper remedy to be used against 

 tin- ravages of these insects." 



In the New England States there is found a 

 tussock or vaporer moth, seemingly the same 

 as the Oreyia antiqua, the antique or rusty va- 

 porer-moth of Europe, from whence, possibly 

 its eggs may have been brought with imported 

 fruit trees, for a description of which, and 

 other tussock moths, see Dr. Harris's treatise, 

 and also Mr. Abbott's work on the insects of 

 Georgia, Also communications by Miss Dix 

 to Silliman's Journal, vol. xix. p. 62. 



"To this group of hairy caterpillars belong 

 those which swarm in the unpruned nurseries 

 and neglected orchards of the slovenly and im- 

 provident husbandman, and hang their many- 

 coated webs upon the wild cherry trees that 

 are suffered to spring up unchecked by the 

 way-side, and encroach upon the borders of 

 our pastures and fields. The eggs from which 

 hey are hatched are placed around the ends of 

 he branches, forming a wide kind of ring or 

 Bracelet, consisting of three or four hundred 

 eggs, in the form of short cylinders, standing on 

 heir ends close together, and covered with a 

 hick coat of brownish water-proof varnish. 

 The caterpillars come forth with the unfolding 

 of the leaves of the apple and cherry tree, dur- 

 ng the latter part of April or the beginning of 

 May. The first signs of their activity appear 

 n the formation of a little angular web or tent, 

 somewhat resembling a spider's web, stretched 

 between the forks of the branches a little be- 



* This name is derived from a word which signifies to 

 tretch out the hands, and it is applied to this kind of 

 until on account of its resting with the fore-legs ex- 

 ended. The Germans call these moths streekfiisfiire 

 ,i' r, the French pattes ttendues, and the English va- 

 lorer-moths, the latter probably because the males are 

 een flying about ostentatiously, or vaporing, by day, 

 when most other moths keep concealed. 



