OF THE FAEM AND GABDEIir. 159 



than the female, with the wings shorter and cut off more 

 squarely. Considerable variation may be found in a given 

 number of moths, but principally in the space between 

 the oblique lines on the front wings being either of the 

 same shade as the rest of the wing, or in its being much 

 darker; but as we have found these variations in different 

 individuals of the same brood, bred either from Ap- 

 ple, Oak, Hickory, or Kose, they evidently have nothing 

 to do with the food-plant. The scales on the wings are 

 very loosely attached, and rub off so readily that good 

 specimens of the moth are seldom captured at large 



THE LAETA SPINS A WEB. 



From the very moment it is bom until after the fourth 

 or last moult, this caterpillar spins a web and lives more 

 or less in company; but from the fact that this web is 

 always attached close to the branches and trunks of the 

 trees infested, it is often overlooked, and several writers 

 have falsely declared that it does not spin. At each suc- 

 cessive moult all the individuals of a batch collect and 

 huddle together upon a common web for two or three 

 days, and during these periods — though more active than 

 most caterpillars in this so-called sickness — they are quite 

 sluggish. During the last or fourth moult they very 

 frequently come low down on the trunk of the tree, and, 

 unwittingly court destruction by collecting in masses 

 within man's reach. 



Eemedies.— Prom their birth until after the third 

 moult these worms will drop and suspend themselves in 

 mid-air, if the branch upon which they are feeding be 

 suddenly Jarred. Therefore when they have been allowed 

 to multiply in an orchard this habit will suggest various 

 modes of destroying them. Again, as already stated, they 

 can often be slaughtered en masse when collected on the 

 trunks during the last moulting period. They will more 



