DAMAGE CAUSED BY ANIMALS. 165 



When full-grown, the caterpillar is about 2 '8 inches in length, 

 and also shows great variations in colour, from ashy grey to ruddy 

 brown, and even blackish brown, with longitudinal stripes half- 

 way along the upper side, or white patches on the side, dark 

 patches or pencillings on the back, and strong growth of bushy 

 hairs. Characteristic marks for the easy recognition of this 

 , caterpillar consist in the dark-blue tufts of hair in the incisions 

 | or joints between the first and second, and the second and third 

 (thoracic) sections of the caterpillar's body, which look like blue 

 I transverse bands across its back, also in the blackish-blue 

 tufts of hair occurring between the other hairy growth, and in a 

 '< particularly strong tuft of such hair on the llth ring of the body. 

 The chrysalis, which is dark in colour near the head, but of a 

 , lighter brown in the lower portion, and only slightly hairy, 

 ! reposes in a large, elliptical, dirty-whitish or grey cocoon. The 

 j ova, about half the size of hemp-seed, are roundly elliptical in 

 shape, but somewhat compressed at the sides ; though at first bluish- 

 grey in colour, they ultimately change to a more pearly grey. 



The chief time of the swarming of the moths is in the month 

 I of July, usually about the middle of it. Like the majority of other 

 moths, their flight is most active towards evening. The copulation 

 | takes place on the stems at no great height above the ground. 

 ! After impregnation the female lays her eggs in clusters of 30 to 50, 

 | and to a total of from 100 to 150, on the bark of the stem and its 

 I branches, and about three weeks later, about the middle of August 

 i on the average, or somewhat later if the weather has been un- 

 ! favourable, the tiny caterpillars make their appearance, first of 

 all consuming the shells of the eggs from which they have just 

 ; issued, and then proceeding to attack the needles forming the 

 j foliage of the trees. In October, or early in November, when 

 I frost begins to make itself felt, they descend from the trees 

 I in search of winter quarters. By this time the caterpillars 

 are as a rule about half -grown. Throughout the winter they 

 ! hibernate under dead foliage and moss, mostly under cover of the 

 ; crown of trees on which they have been feeding, until awakened 

 i again to life and action by the gradual increase in the soil 

 ! temperature which takes place about the end of March or the be- 

 ginning of April. Thereupon they at once re-ascend the trees, 

 commence attacking the foliage, and continue feeding on it till 

 I about the end of June, the caterpillars devouring the whole of 



