REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I918 55 



it was a matter of record in early and mid-Jul^^ This insect and the 

 yellow-necked caterpillars became so abundant that a special circular 

 was issued the first of August. Subsequent evidence fully demon- 

 strated the value of the warning since there was almost unprece- 

 dented stripping of young and even moderately small trees. The 

 yellow-necked caterpillars continued numerous until the middle of 

 September. The damage to many young trees is so great that 

 extensive winter killing may occur, specially if the cold is unusual. 



The moths of both species fly in midsummer and later deposit 

 their whitish eggs in clusters on the underside of the leaves. The 

 caterpillars are gregarious and when young skeletonize the foliage, 

 though they soon commence to devour the entire leaf and their 

 presence is easily recognized by the stripped or partly defoliated 

 branches or even entire trees. The caterpillars of both species are 

 easily distinguished from other common apple insects by the peculiar 

 habit of elevating both extremities when alarmed and, as the pests 

 are usually in clusters, the effect is grotesque and somewhat suggestive 

 of a cluster of strange flowers. Young yellow-necked apple cater- 

 pillars are chestnut brown with obscure darker stripes and as they 

 increase in size the body is distinctly striped with black and yellow 

 and sparsely clothed with rather long, whitish hairs. The red- 

 humped apple caterpillars are likewise striped and are easily dis- 

 tinguished by the coral red head, the similar colored swelling on the 

 third thoracic segment and the red posterior extremity. This cater- 

 pillar has a series of short, black tubercles and is not hairy. Both 

 of these caterpillars are about i| inches long when full grown. The 

 yellow-necked caterpillars winter in the soil and the red-htunped ones 

 in cocoons under trash on the ground, the moths of each not issuing 

 until the following season. 



These pests are easily controlled by spraying with a poison and 

 under present conditions it is advisable to protect young trees from 

 these and associated depredators by spraying about the first of August 

 with arsenate of lead, using 2 pounds of the paste to 50 gallons of 

 water. 



Apple and thorn skeletonizer. (Hemerophila pariana 

 Clerck) . The establishment of this insect in Westchester and Rock- 

 land counties was recorded in Cornell Extension Bulletin 27 and in 

 the report of this office for last year. Both these publications contain 

 extended accounts to which the reader is referred for additional 

 details. Reports received the past season indicate the occurrence of 

 the insect north from Yonkers to Yorktown Heights. It is probable 

 that there has been some extension of territory during the season 



