ELM LEAF BEETLE AND WHITE-MARKED TUSSOCK MOTH 15 



voracious leaf feeder. The cause of this native species thriving 

 so greatly in cities and villages during recent years is explained 

 by the abundance of the English sparrow. This bird will not 

 eat the caterpillars and drives away many of the native forms 

 which, in earlier days, were of great service in devouring these 

 hairy pests. 



Description. The full-grown caterpillar is really a beautiful 

 object. It has a coral-red head, a pair of long, black plumes just 

 over it, a single one at the opposite extremity of the body, four 

 delicate yellowish or white, brushlike tufts on its back and just 

 behind them, separated only by a segment, two small retractile 

 red elevations. There is a broad, black band broken only by 

 tubercles and tufts along the back and bordered by yellowish 

 stripes. Each side is dark gray except for the yellowish tuber- 

 cles. The breathing tubes or spiracles are in a lateral black 

 line and below this the caterpillar is yellow, the legs usually be- 

 ing paler [pi. 2, fig. 4]. The very young caterpillar is pale yel- 

 lowish or whitish with long, irregular hairs. It increases in 

 size, casts its skin from time to time and assumes one after 

 another the characteristics of the full-grown larva. 



The thin cocoons spun in the crevices of the bark [pi. 2, fig. 6] 

 have the long hairs of the caterpillar interwoven and within this 

 shelter the larva transforms to a yellowish white pupa more or 

 less shaded with dark brown or black [pi. 2, fig. 7]. 



The sexes differ strikingly as is shown on plate 2, figures I 

 and 2. The male is a beautiful moth with large feathery anten- 

 nae, tufted legs, and with the wings and body delicately marked 

 with several shades of gray or grayish white. The female, on 

 the other hand, is a nearly uniform gray with simple antennae 

 and but rudimentary wings. 



The eggs, usually over three hundred, are deposited on the 

 empty cocoon, under a conspicuous white mass of frothy matter 

 about one-half of an inch in diameter [pi. 2, fig. 3]. This soon 

 hardens and forms a very effective protection. The egg masses 

 [pi. 7, 8] are easily removed and a tree thoroughly cleared 

 thereof can become infested again only by caterpillars crawling 

 from adjacent trees or being carried thereto. The individual egg 

 is nearly spheric, about one-twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter, 

 white or yellowish white and with a light brown spot surrounded 

 by a ring of the same color. 



Life history and habits. This insect winters in the conspic- 

 uous egg masses described above, the young appearing about 



