ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



263 



or during: the forepart of June, tlie moths coin- 

 meuce to issue, aud fly about at night. Tliis 

 moth (Fig. 165, 6 § ) bears a considerable resem- 

 blance to that of the Common Tent-caterpillar 

 (Fig. 107, $), being of a brownlsh-yelknv or 



[Fig. 167.] 



Color— Kust-brown . 



rusty brown, and having- two oblique transverse 

 lines across the front wings. It difl'ers, however, 

 in the color being paler or more yellowish, espe- 

 cially on the thorax; in the space between the 

 oblique lines being usually darker instead of 

 lighter than that on either side ; but principally 

 ill the oblique lines themselves being dark in- 

 stead of light, and in a transverse shade, often 

 quite distinct, across the hind wings. As in 

 Americana, the male is smaller than the female, 

 with the wings shorter and cut oil' more squarely. 

 Considerable variation may be found in a given 

 number of moths, but principally in the space 

 between the oblique lines on the front wings 

 being either of the same shade as the rest of the 

 wing, or in its being much darker; but as we 

 have found these variations in different indi- 

 viduals of the same brood, bred cither from Oak, 

 Hickory, Apple and Eose, they evidently have 

 nothing (o do with the food-i)laiit. The scales 

 on the wings are very loosely attached, and rub 

 olf so readily that good specimens of the motli 

 are seldom captured at large. So much for the 

 natural history of our Forest Tent-caterpillar. 



THE LAUVA SPINS A -WEB. 



From the very moment it is born till after the 

 fourth or last moult, this caterpillar spins a web 

 and lives more or less in company ; but from the 

 fact that this web is always attached close to tlie 

 branches and trunks of the trees infested, it is 

 often overlookedj aud several writers have falsely 

 declared that it does not spin. At each succes- 

 sive moult all the individuals of a batch collect 

 and huddle together upon a common web for 

 two or three days, and during these periods — 

 though more active than most other caterpillars 

 in this so-called sickness— they are quite slug- 

 gish. During the last or fourth moult they 

 \ery frecpiently come low down on the trunk of 

 the tree, and, as in the case of the gregariou.s 

 larvre of the Hand-maid Moth (Datana minis- 

 tra), which often entirely denude our Black 

 Walnuts, they unwittingly court destruction by 

 collecting in such masses witliin man's reach. 



IT FEEDS BOTH ON ORCIIAIiU AND FOREST TREES. 



In the summer of 18C7 this insect did gi-eat 

 damage in Western New York, where it is falsely 

 called THE "Army-worm." From the fact that 

 Mr. Peter Ferris, of Millvillc, Orleans county, 

 N. Y., was greatly troubled with it that year in 

 his apple orchard, and that he did not notice any 

 of the same worms on the Oak and Walnut tim- 

 ber of that section, he concluded tiiat his Apple- 

 feeding worms must be different from those 

 feeding on forest trees. In an article signed 

 "F., Orleans county, N. Y.", which appeared 

 in the Country Gentleman of July 23d, 1868, 

 the same writer endeavors to prove his Apple- 

 feeding worms distinct by sundry minute char- 

 acters, as may be seen from the following extract : 



Now I am not an entomologist, but still must be 

 allowed to believe that there arc several jmints, 

 if not •' distinctive characters," in which our 

 calcrpillar ditters from the Tent-calerpillar of 

 the Forest, as described by Dr. Fitch. J lis larva 

 is of a i)ale blue color, tinged lower down on 

 each side with greenish-gra_\'. In ours the pre- 

 vailing color on the back is black ; there is a sky- 

 blue stripe on each side but no greenish-gray. 

 Both have the wliite spots on the back much alike, 

 though perhaps ours are more club-shaped, look- 

 ing to the naked eye nearly the shaiii^ of ten-pins. 

 Both have these spots surroumU'd wilh l)lack ; in 

 ours there is quite a broad black stripe (ui each 

 side of the spots. This black stripe is more or 

 less filled with line, crinkled, liright orange lines. 

 In some, these orange lines are so plenty as to 

 be seen plainly without the glass; in others the 

 color to the naked eye is a fine velvet-black. In 

 the larva described "by Dr. Fitch there is much 

 less of black and of the tine crinkled lines, which 

 are pale orange-yellow. There is a somewhat 

 l)roader stripe of "the same yellow color, in place 

 of a narrow orange one in ours. The lower yel- 

 low stripe may be much alike in both, but what 

 is skv-blue in" one is greenish-gray in the other. 

 In both, the head is of a dark bluish color, but 

 in his it is freckled with numerous black dots; 

 in ours, both to the naked eye and under a glass, 

 it is plain. In his " the second segment or neck 

 is edged anteriorly with cream-white, which 

 color is more broad on the sides. The third and 

 fourth segments have each a large black spot on 

 each side." Both the cream-white edge and 

 black spots are entirely wanting in our cater- 

 pillars. 



The habits of the larva; also appear to be dif- 

 I'crent. According to Harris and Fitch, the Tent- 

 caterpillar of the Foi-est lives in large societies, 

 under a tent or cob-web-like nest plai'ed against 

 the side of the tree, and comes out to feed on the 

 leaves. Others, as well as myself, have watched 

 our caterpillars and entirely fail to discover that 

 they lived in communities, or in any one place 

 that they went from and returned to. While 

 small, they remain scattered over the smaller 

 branches and on the leaves, and are first seen to 

 begin to get together when about half grown, 

 on some of the liigher limbs in the sun. They 

 only collect in large bunches on the trunk and 

 lower limbs; when nearly full grown, and the 



