Report of the State Entomologist 



305 



hairs with which they are cloBely covered. This is doubtless the one 

 that Dr. Harris has called the " yellow bear," as its hairs are usually of 

 a pale yellow color, although m. some examples they are brownish- 

 yellow or a foxy-red. While most caterpillars have their particular 

 food-plants, and some will feed only on a single species of plant, there 

 are others to which hardly anything in our gardens comes amiss ; of 

 the latter kind is the " yellow bear," whose omnivorous habits and 

 remarkable voracity renders it at times a great garden pest. When 

 it has about reached its maximum size of two inches in length, it is 



Fig. 27.— The caterpillar, pupa, and moth of Spilosoma Yieginica. 



capable of destroying a plant of moderate size in an incredibly short 

 space of time. As the caterpillars do not feed in company and are 

 generally not numerous in any locality, they can not be fought with 

 the ordinary methods. Their presence is usually betrayed by the eaten 

 foliage, when the caterpillar, conspicuous from its color and size can 

 readily be found, removed from the plant and crashed. The moth into 

 which it transforms has for its scientific name, Spilosoma Virginica. It 

 is familiarly known as the " white miller," from its white wings, devoid 

 of any marking except one, two, or three small black spots on each 

 wing. Its body has a row of conspicuous black spots on its back, a 

 similar one on each side, and a dark yellow line intermediately. The 

 caterpillars now feeding (July 5th) will soon spin up into their cocoons, 

 within which they will change to pupae, from which the moths will 

 emerge during the last of this month or beginning of August, and 

 lay their eggs for another brood in clusters upon the leaves of various 

 plants. 



Figure 27 represents the insect in its three stages of larva, pupa, and 

 imago. Saunders says that the eggs are round and yellow and are 

 deposited on the under side of the leaves in large clusters, and in a 

 few days hatch into small hairy caterpillars. 



