31 



caterpillar i.s velvety black above, the sides have two yellow stripes, 

 and between them are many blackish patches and dots. The yellowish 

 or brownish hairs are mostly in tufts which arise from tubercles or 

 warts. Some specimens are quite pale; others very dark. In Septem- 

 ber or October the caterpillar is ready to pupate, and descends to the 

 main branches or trunk of the tree. Here it makes a delicate cocoon, 

 within which it changes to a chrysalis. The insect passes the winter 

 in this stage, and the moth emerges the following spring. The latter 

 has white, sometimes spotted wings, and expands about an inch and a 

 half. There is but one brood each j'ear in the North, but from New 

 York city south there are two broods, the caterpillars of the second 

 making their appearance in August. 



THE BKOWN-TAIL MOTH. 



{Euproctis chrysorrhea Linn. — flg. 21.) 



This insect, at present confined to certain parts of eastern Massa- 

 chusetts, is such a dangerous pest that all interested in nursery trade 



Fig. 21.-£aprodis chrysorrhea. Moths, larvsE, and cocoons. (Howard 



should be able to recognize it. During winter their small but very 

 compact webs or nests attached to the terminal twigs are very promi- 

 nent objects and will aid in distinguishing the species. In midsummer 

 the eggs may be found in patches of two or three hundred attached 

 to the under side of a leaf near the tip of a branch. The egg mass is 

 covered by a dense layer of brown hairs from the tip of the abdomen 

 of the female. The young hatch in August and eat the surface of 

 the leaf. As soon as it is devoured they draw another leaf to it, until 



