74 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



By examining the specimens which I have here, it will be seen that the egg mass is about 

 half an inch long by a quarter of an inch wide. The eggs cannot be seen under their furry 

 covering, but they are round, of a golden color, and there are between 2U0 and 300 in a 

 heap. The caterpillars vary in appearance during the different moults. The young cater- 

 pillars are described as of a dirty yellow color, with a black head and a black ring around 

 the neck. They are thickly covered with hair and have four rows of black dots along 

 the back. They are social in their habits throughout their larval life. From the first 

 they spin a web over themselves, and as a leaf is destroyed another is attached to it by 

 silken strands and gradually becomes part of the nest. The leaves attacked are also 

 fastened securely to the twigs. The nest is never entirely forsaken ; when the caterpil- 

 lars get larger they sally out in search of food but return from time to time to their refuge. 

 The mature larva (as exhibited) is rather a handsome creature, velvety black lined with 

 brown and bearing on each segment tufts of golden brown bristles. Along each side is a 

 conspicuous lateral interrupted white stripe with tufts of curious hair-like processes. On 

 segments ten and eleven are spherical reddish yellow tubercles, one on each segment, 

 similar to those found on the Gipsy Moth. These the caterpillars can elevate or depress 

 at pleasure. The head is black mottled with brown, and the full grown larva is nearly an 

 inch and a half in length. 



"Kollar speaks of pupation taking place by preference upon damson trees, the cater- 

 pillars leaving apple and pear trees to pupate upon the damsons. He also speaks of the 

 mode of pupation as follows : " After the last moult, which the caterpillars undergo 

 either in the old nests under the new web or in the open air, they disperse over the differ- 

 ent fruit trees in the garden. Pupation takes place in June ; several again unite, roll 

 some leaves together into a ball, make for themselves jointly a brownish web and become 

 dark brown pupae. There are from four to twelve in a ball." » 



Among remedies, this author recommends highly the collecting of these balls, which 

 are generally found either on damson trees or, when these are not present, upon the lower 

 branches of the trees which have been attacked. The Brown-tail Moth is a night flying 

 insect which is very active at night, but sits quietly without movement during the day 

 time. The four wings and thorax are of a snowy whiteness ; the antennae are golden brown, 

 white above, and in the male widely pectinate. The abdomen is dark brown in both 

 sexes, that of the female bearing at its posterior extremity a round mass of golden yellow 

 hair, which entirely disappears by the time egg laying is completed, the component hairs 

 having been deposited by the female over the mass of eggs as a covering. 



The work which has been done in connection with the Brown- tail Moth is another 

 instance of the grand service which is being rendered to the State, the Union and the 

 cause of economic entomology by the Gipsy Moth Committee. The laws which have 

 been enacted in Europe, and already in Massachusetts, show the necessity of attendiDg to 

 this enemy at once before it gets beyond control. It is well for the country that chance 

 has introduced it within the area so well watched by the expert entomologists and officers 

 of the Gipsy Moth Committee. The careful experiments which have been carried on by 

 these gentlemen show that the destruction of the webs in winter and the spraying of trees 

 when the caterpillars are active, supplemented with lantern traps, are effective means of 

 keeping down the numbers of this insect, and, further, that if the matter is neglected we 

 have in this new pest an enemy with great capabilities for spreading and doing harm, 

 which should stimulate effort on the part of everyone living in the infested areas to do 

 what is advised by the Committee promptly, so that, if still possible, so destructive an 

 enemy may be prevented from spreading over a large area of country. The experience 

 of some districts which were systematically worked by destroying the conspicuous winter 

 shelters with the caterpillars inside them in 1897-8, is very instructive, for there were 

 practically no moths in these districts last summer; but in adjacent places where no effort 

 was made, the moths have increased to such an extent that these cleared districts will 

 probably be re-infested and all the work will have to be done over again. 



