160 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



are so conspicuous it is not difficult to keep it in check. There is 

 no excuse for allowing the trees to be stripped of their foliage before 

 the colony is destroyed. 



The apple-tree tent caterpillar is a native of the northern Atlantic 

 States and has been distributed to other parts of the country on 

 nursery stock. It is now widely known and feeds upon the foliage 

 of the plum, black cherry, apple and other trees. 



FIG. 8. FFG. 9. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Perfect insect — a moth of a pale dull reddish or reddish brown 

 color. The fore wings are crossed by two oblique parallel dirty 

 white lines. The female is larger than the male. Their relative 

 size is shown in Figs. 8 and 9. The male has feathery antenfe. The 

 moth has no power of taking food and lives only a few days. Its 

 office is to lay the eggs. 



Eggs — from one to two hundred in number are laid, in clusters, 

 composed of from ten to twenty rows, upon the smaller twigs. The 

 eggs are conical about one-twentieth of an inch long. The clusters 

 are covered over with a tenacious varnish that keeps out the rain. 

 Fig. 10 shows an egg cluster with the varnish on, and Fig. 11, c, 

 shows the arrangement of the eggs on the twig. 



FIG. 10. 



Larva — The young larva are fully formed — the eggs in the fall 

 remain dormant until the first warm days of spring and then 

 hatch. They can be made to hatch in the winter by bringing the 

 clusters to the fire. When first hatched they eat the gummj' por- 

 tions of the egg cluster covering, and if the leaves have not appeared 

 can go several days without food. Worms hatched last spring 

 in the house wandered about the twig for over a week before the}^ 

 died, after having eaten all the varnish, leaving the egg-shells bare. 

 The larvse early begin to construct their web which is increased in 



