220 



NATURE-STUDY 



on the market to be wormy. Millions of dollars worth of 

 fruit are lost annually through this insect. Early spraying 

 with poisons will kill the larvae. Collecting and destroying 

 the apples that fall early, wrapping straw, etc. around the 



trunk for the caterpillars 

 to make their cocoons in, 

 in order to collect and 

 burn them, are remedies. 

 Birds in the orchard are 

 a great aid. 



A number of other 

 caterpillars injure the 

 foliage of orchard and 

 shade trees. The Tent 

 Caterpillar forms large, 

 unsightly webs in the 

 twigs of the trees. These 

 webs are the homes of 

 several hundred caterpil- 

 lars, that were hatched 

 out of an egg mass de- 

 posited by the female 

 moth the fall before, on 

 the twigs near the tent. 

 These caterpillars feed upon the leaves of the trees, and by 

 the defoliation sometimes injure the trees materially, besides 

 disfiguring them badly. They eat the soft parts of the 

 leaf, leaving the skeleton of ribs and veins. They gener- 

 ally feed during the early morning hours and again toward 

 evening, probably so as to escape the attacks of other in- 

 sects and of birds. During most of the day they hide in 



Fig. 74. Tent of Web-worms. 



