Il6 THE FOREST TENT CATERPILLAR 



the position in which the wings of the moth are held, drooping and well 

 covering the abdomen, and it cannot be stated with certainty whether the 

 egg itself is deposited just before or just after the extrusion of the froth. 



The width of the band being decided upon, the rows are made of uniform 

 length thereafter and the girdle begins to take form. In the case under 

 observation, as the moth was undersized the band was a narrow one, and 

 the number of eggs in each row was about seven. When the band was 

 nearly completed, after about an hour's work, the moth was disturbed, 

 and for the remaining distance the rows were anything but regular. 

 Whether as a result of this break or otherwise, there were a lot of eggs left 

 over after the ends of the band were united, and these were deposited 

 slowly and irregularly, with much preliminary feeling about on the lower 

 edge of the band. This part of the operation required above an hour, or as 

 long for the placing of a few dozen eggs as it did for the construction of 

 the girdle proper. The whole time, from the first observation until the egg 

 mass was finally left, was about two and a half hours. The moth did not 

 long survive the completion of the ring, but within a few hours, before it 

 had been a whole day in its perfected form, it died. 



A condition that has been repeatedly noticed during the 

 last three years seems to indicate that in general the instinct 

 of the moth teaches it to deposit eggs only on trees bearing 

 leaves at the time the eggs are laid. When a maple orchard 

 is defoliated one year, it is likely to escape the next )'ear, 

 unless it is invaded by caterpillars hatched on the surrounding 

 trees. The moths that develop on such a lot of defoliated 

 trees apparently fly to the surrounding trees that still bear 

 leaves before depositing their eggs. Of course this habit is 

 of advantage to the insect, for the chances of a sufficient food 

 supply for the caterpillars are greatly increased by it. In 

 some cases, however, the explanation is that the caterpillars 

 completed the defoliation of the trees before they were full 

 grown, and then migrated to new feeding grounds. 



THE POPULAR NAME OF THE INSECT 



There has been considerable discussion of late among ento- 

 mologists as to the best popular name for this insect. As was 

 said in my former bulletin, "its common name, Forest Tent 

 Caterpillar, is not very satisfactory, because, first, the insects 

 are as likely to be found in apple orchards as in forests ; and, 

 second, they do not make tents in the complete sense that the 



