TWO SHADE-TKEE PESTS 



BY CLARENCE M. WEED 



I. THE WHITE-MARKED TUSSOCK MOTH. 



During the early part of the past summer the elm trees of 

 Manchester were seriously attacked by the caterpillars of the 

 White-marked Tussock moth 1 — an insect that has long been 

 known to injure elms in cities. The pest is also present to a 

 greater or less extent in various other parts of the state. To 

 acquaint the public with its habits and the methods of destroy- 

 ing it, the following account is published. 



If the elm trees in northern localities infested by this insect 

 be examined any time from late summer until early the follow- 

 ing spring, one will see scattered here and there upon the bark 

 of the trunk and larger branches, whitish patches, easily visible 

 some distance away. On closer examination these patches will 

 be found to consist of thin, grey cocoons attached to the bark, 

 many of which will be partially covered with large, glistening 

 white masses, suggestive of dried froth, which, if broken open, 

 will be found to contain hundreds of small, white, spherical eggs, 

 held together by the froth-like substance that permeates the 

 whole mass. If the cocoon itself be pulled apart, there will be 

 found within it an empty brown pupa shell, from which the 

 moth emerged. 



Should you leave one of these egg-masses in place on the 

 tree, and watch it in spring, you would see sometime in May, 

 or early June, soon after the leaves burst through the buds, 

 hundreds of tiny hairy caterpillars come forth from the mass, 

 and crawl along the bark toward the leaf-bearing branches. 



1 Orgyia leiuostigma. 



