LIFE HISTORY OF THE BEOWN-TAIL MOTH. 21 



EUROPEAN HISTORY OF THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH. 



The brown-tail moth is one of the oldest known pests in Europe 

 and is called in many of the earlier writings ^'la commune," or the 

 communistic one. It is said to be distributed over central and 

 southern Europe and to extend to Algiers on the south and the 

 Himalayas on the east. It has been found in limited numbers in 

 England and may be present in Japan, although the record from the 

 latter country is somewhat doubtful. Few, if any, species have 

 caused more havoc to foliage than has this one, and many accounts 

 of its destructive work have been recorded. Deciduous forest and 

 fruit trees are often denuded, and even garden crops sometimes suffer 

 from the enormous numbers of the caterpillars. Similar conditions 

 now prevail in some sections of Europe,"* for during the spring of 

 1909 thousands of seedling trees, badly infested with the webs of this 

 insect, were shipped to this country from nurseries in France. 



Mr. H. L. Frost, of Arlington, Mass., informed the writers that 

 while in Germany during the summer of 1909 he found that the 

 Thiergarten in Berlin, a large park, had been closed to the public 

 owing to the large numbers of larvae of the insect which were defoli- 

 ating the trees. The action of the officials in closing this park was 

 in part due to the serious poisoning of people as a result of coming in 

 contact with caterpillars while visiting the grounds. 



Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief of the Bureau of Entomology of this 

 Department, states that he observed this insect present in injurious 

 numbers in certain sections of Europe, particularly in France, during 

 the summer of 1909. 



LIFE HISTORY OF THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH. 



THE EGGS. 



(PI. lY, fig. 4.) 



The female brown- tail moth deposits her eggs in a single elongated 

 cluster on the underside of a leaf, usually near the end of a twig, 

 covering it with brown hair from the end of her body. Each cluster 

 is about two-thirds of an inch long and contains from 200 to 400 eggs 

 which are nearly globular, and yellow. The eggs are deposited 

 during the first three weeks in July, and hatching takes place in 

 from 15 to 20 days. 



THE LARV^. 



(PI. IV, fig. 5.) 



After hatching the young larvae begin feeding on the epidermis of 

 the leaf on which the egg cluster was deposited and later attack others 

 near by. They are gregarious and usually feed on the terminal 

 leaves of the twigs, which are drawn together and held in position 



