120 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



pillars, cocoons and moths should be destroyed by hand whenever 

 possible. 



(g) The city of Rochester, N. Y., has successfully enlisted the 

 services of the school children in protecting the city shade trees. 

 Pride in one's city adornment could be thus stimulated in pupils, 

 and by collecting the egg clusters, caterpillars, cocoons and 

 moths, a valuable and practical lesson in nature study would be 

 learned. It would pay town authorities to offer a small bounty, 

 if need be, to stimulate the collecting. All specimens collected 

 should be burned. 



Remarks. 



For a fuller consideration of this insect and illustrations of all 

 the stages in its life history, the reader is referred to Maine 

 Experiment Station Report, 1888, p. 164; 1889, p. 188; 1890, p. 

 138, and 1897, p. 173 ; or to the Maine Agricultural Reports of 

 the corresponding years. 



THE APPLE TREE TENT CATERPILLAR. CHsiocampa Americana, 



Harris. 



This insect is a native of North America and occurs wherever 

 apples are grown. It has given more or less trouble to apple 

 growers since the early settlement of the country. While it 

 prefers wild cherry, and selects the apple as second choice, it 

 feeds upon plum, peach, rose, and other members of the rose 

 family ; also upon the oak, poplar, willow, birch, witch hazel, 

 beech, etc. 



Description and Life History. 



Eggs. — Dull gray; the upper end circular with a dark spot in the 

 center. They are laid in clusters round the twigs and covered with 

 varnish to protect them from the weather. There are from fifty to two 

 hundred and fifty in a bunch. 



Larva. — When first hatched they are dull black and sparsely covered 

 with gray hairs. They appear about the time the leaves start, but if 

 ahead of them, may feed for a time upon the varnish covering the eggs. 

 They molt about six times. The larvse soon begin to spin a web which 

 increases in size by additional layers of silk as the worms grow, until 

 it is sometimes ten inches or more across. The worms remain in the 

 tent at night, during stormy weather and when not feeding, unless the 

 weather is warm, in which case they may often be seen upon the outside, 

 literally covering the web. They march in military order twice a day 

 from the nest to feed, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. 



