REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I9II 43 



nursery stock grown upon American soil than with that shipped 

 from Europe, since the latter is mostly imported as seedlings, 

 while the larger shrubs and trees receive more personal attention 

 abroad than in this country. 



(Since the above was written, a small gipsy moth infestation has 

 been found at Great Barrington, Mass., possibly carried on a 

 freight car, since the center of the colony appears to be close to 

 the railroad station.) 



Description. There is great danger of the g'ipsy moth being 

 brought into New York State and on this account we have pre- 

 pared rather careful descriptions of the various stages including 

 also certain microscopic features of service in recognizing the 

 insect from remains of exuviae (larval or pupal) or even broken 

 egg masses. This latter is of considerable importance in connec- 

 tion with shipment of nursery stock from infested regions, since 

 even lifeless and therefore intrinsically harmless exuviae indi- 

 cate the previous occurrence of the insect upon the stock in ques- 

 tion and compel its classification as at least suspicious. 



The egg masses of this insect, occurring from midsummer till 

 the following spring, appear very much like a small section of fine 

 sponge. They are round or oval, buff colored and each contains 

 usually from four hundred to five hundred eggs. The eggs may 

 be found on stones, in tin cans and in fact on almost any station- 

 ary object near at hand, not excluding plantain leaves and other 

 vegetation. They are especially likely to be deposited on the 

 under surface of limbs, fence rails, moldings, etc., on or in the 

 vicinity of infested trees. The nearly globular, pale yellowish or 

 salmon colored eggs are about one-twentieth of an inch in diam- 

 eter and are well concealed in the mass by the buff colored 

 scales from the under side of the female's abdomen. The micro- 

 pyle of this egg (plate 9, figure 2) comprises about eleven 

 slender, irregularly pyriform plates surrounded by approximately 

 three rows of small, polygonal plates, these in turn merging into 

 larger, thinner, irregular, hexagonal plates. This character is of 

 great value in establishing the identity of individual eggs or a 

 small portion of an egg cluster. It can be demonstrated best 

 by thoroughly cleaning individual eggs by rubbing them with 

 the fingers in alcohol, then sectioning the egg, drying the shell 

 and mounting it in an air cell. 



The egg mass of the definite marked tussock moth, 

 Hemerocampa definita Pack, approaches in appearance 

 that of the gipsy moth. The approximately oval egg mass of this 



