88 



THE GYPSY JIOTH. 



Fig. 5.— Eggs of White-Marked Tassock Moth on cocoons of females, and full-grown 

 caterpillar, natural size. 



The Caterpillar or Larva. — (Figure 6.) "The eggs hatch 

 about May 1 and each mass ©r 'cluster' yields a swarm of 

 young caterpillars, the bulk of which become full grown by 

 midsummer. Gypsy moth caterpillars of any age are decid- 

 edly hairy. The mature caterpillar has a dusky or sooty- 

 colored body. Along the back, counting from the head, 

 which is marked with yellow, is a double row of five pairs 

 of blue spots, followed by a double row of six pairs of red 

 spots. This double row of spots may almost invariably be 

 seen very distinctly on the back of a caterpillar which has 

 attained a length of one inch and a half or more. No other 

 New England larva has this double row of blue and red 

 spots along its back. The mature gypsy moth caterpillar 

 not infrequently attains a length of three inches. ' ' * The 



♦From Bulletin 1, Office of Superintendent, for Suppressing the Gypsy and 

 Brown-tail Moths, of Massachusetts, by A. H. Kirkland, from which are all 

 other quotations, unless otherwise indicated, and to which we are indebted 

 for much of the present article not directly quoted. 



