33 



This makes it important that property owners should be on the lookout 

 for the insect and jjromptly stamp out infestations as soon as discovered. 



Life Histo7'y. 



The* life histoiy of the gypsy nioth follows along lines common to 

 our principal caterpillar pests. The eggs, smaller than a pin head, are 

 laid in masses of five hundred or more on trunks of trees, stone walls, 

 fences, etc. At the time of e<y^ laying the female moth covers the egg 

 cluster with an abundant coating of yellow hair from the surface of the 

 abdomen. The completed egg mass is from one to one and one-half inches 

 long by half an inch in width, and rounded at each end. Egg layino- 

 takes place in July and August, and as the eggs do not hatch until the 

 following April or May the insect is 

 open to attack in that stage through- 

 out a large part of the year. The 

 eggs hatch as early as the loth of 

 April in favorable seasons, although 

 the hatching period may be delayed 

 well into May. Egg masses on the 

 south side of trees, walls, etc., hatch 

 first, while those laid in places w'here 

 the sun does not [)enetrate may be 

 delayed until the early part of June. 

 The extreme variation noticed in date 

 of hatching was from April 1 to ,June 

 17. 



Leaving the common mass the 

 young caterpillars crawl about in 

 search of food, and if foliage is not 

 then available do not hesitate to at- 

 tack the swelling buds or even the 

 bark of tender twigs. Nature has 

 endowed these tiny caterpillars with 

 the ability to exist without food for a 

 week or more, and they may wander 

 nearly one hundred feet in the mean 

 time. Their spreading, however, from place to place does not de]iend 

 on the actual distance over w^hich the caterpillar may be able to crawl. 

 Each of these tiny insects commences to spin a silken thread as soon as 

 hatched, and thus suspended they are caught uj) by the wind and blown 

 from place to place and upon vehicles. 



As the insects feed they cast their skin from time to time, five or six 

 molts being the rule, when by midsummer the large brown hairy cater- 

 pillars are ready to enter the pupal stage. From July 1 to 15 the majority 

 of the caterpillars pupate under the branches, on the trunks of trees and in 

 stone walls and other partially sheltered spots. A little over two weeks 

 is required for the pupal state, the brown male moths appearing a few 

 days in advance of the large white females. The difference in mark- 



Fio 2. 



Full-grown caterpillar of gypsy 

 moth. 



