AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 



141 



the most common of these belong to the willow family, the leaves 

 of all species of willow and poplar (Fig. 2) being eagerly de- 

 voured. Original colonies are also frequently found upon spe- 

 cies of the oak family, the birch being, in fact, one of the more 

 common food-plants, while the oak (Fig. 3), hazel, and alder 

 form no slight item in the bill 

 of fare. The only other orders 

 on which original colonies 

 were found were the barberry 

 and dogwood families. Col- 

 onies with egg-masses oc- 

 curred commonly on bar- 

 berry bushes, and a single 

 tent with the egg-mass was 

 once found on a species of 

 Cornell. 



The secondary food-plants 

 were much more varied ; it 

 did not seem to make so 

 much difference what they 

 were so long as they were of 

 a woody nature. Maple, 

 locust, currant, witch hazel, 

 viburnum, and blueberry are 

 all attacked, and each be- 

 longs to a different family. 

 The only case of an herba- 

 ceous diet found was that of 

 a caterpillar in tiie midst of 

 a field, feeding on the com- 

 mon ox-eye daisy. 



The parasites of the tent 

 caterpillar, as already indi- 

 cated, include many species. The four-winged flies of the 

 genus Pinipla — one of the many groups of ichneumon flies — 

 are among the most important of these. The several stages of 

 life of a Pirnpla parasite are shown in Fig. 4, which was drawn 

 under the writer's direction, when he was connected with the 

 Ohio Experiment Station, and is here used by courtesy of the 



Fig. 3- 



Oak leaf eaten by Tent Caterpillars. 

 (Original.) 



