958 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



more or less distinct black markings. The abdomen is tipped with buff. 

 The spread female and her characteristic restin'g position are well shown 

 in fig. i and 2 of pi. 1. The female moth does not fly though she 

 apparently has well developed wings. 



Life history. The winter is passed in the egg mass, which is remark 

 ably resistant to atmospheric and other agencies. Experiments have shown 

 that even when the egg clusters were broken up and freely exposed to the 

 elements, the eggs were apparently not harmed, and a normal proportion 

 of the caterpillars appeared at the usual time, which in the vicinity of 

 Boston is from the last of April to the middle of June. The feeding 

 period extends from the first of May to about the middle of July, a catert 

 pillar requiring from about nine to eleven weeks to complete its growth 

 and enter the pupa stage. The young caterpillars remain on the egg 

 clusters from one to five or more days and then commence feeding on 

 the leaf hairs. Soon they eat out small holes in the leaves and, after the 

 third or fourth molt, about as many feed on the edge of the leaf as eat 

 out holes. The caterpillars are nocturnal feeders, remaining in clusters 

 on limbs and trunk or hiding in some crevice during the day, and be- 

 ginning between 7 and 8 o'clock in the evening leisurely to ascend the 

 tree, where they feed on the foliage at intervals during the night, de- 

 scending about 3 o'clock in the morning. Many of our farmers are fa- 

 miliar with the masses of forest tent-caterpillars so abundant in sections 

 of New York the past two or three years. The gipsy moth caterpillars 

 assemble in just such masses, and on badly infested trees they are as de- 

 structive as our native species. 



The larvae transform to pupae during the month of June, the moths 

 appearing from the latter part of June till the latter part of July. In 

 exceptional cases these dates may be considerably extended. Males 

 emerge in advance of the opposite sex, and shortly after the females ap- 

 pear, pairing takes place and egg deposition begins. The embryos are 

 frequently well developed within the egg in two or three weeks after 

 oviposition. but as a rule the caterpillars do not emerge till the next 

 spring. A case is on record of eggs hatching in early September of 1895 

 at Woburn (Mass.), but the round of life was not completed, and in this 

 northern latitude, at least, there need be little fear of two generations 

 annually. 



Food plants. One of the most dangerous features of the gipsy 

 moth is the exceedingly large number of plants on which its caterpillars 

 thrive. They will eat without hesitation almost all our native shrubs and 



