438 



HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



YELLOW-TAfLED MOTH 

 AND CATERPILJ.AR. 



fruit trees, often prevailing to such an extent 

 that not a leaf or 

 Fig. 183. fruit is left unin- 



. jured. " The yellow- 

 1 tailed moth," Kollar 

 observes, " is a noc- 

 turnal lepidopterous 

 insect, as it only flies 

 about and propa- 

 gates its species by 

 night. In the day- 

 time it sits quietly 

 on a leaf, or on a 

 Wall, and suffei's it- 

 self to be caught in 

 the hand. Its fore 

 ^ wings are of a daz- 

 zling whiteness, as 

 is also the greater, 

 part of its body ; 

 only the principal 

 vein of the fore wing 

 of the male is brown 

 on the under side, 

 and it has also some- 

 times a few black 

 dots on its wings. The male is distinguished 

 from the female by its more slender abdomen, 

 terminating almost in a point, by a smaller tuft 

 of hair on the tail, and by its strongly pectinated 

 antennsBjthe rays of which are yellowish brown." 

 This moth usually appears about the beginning 

 of July. The female, in general, lays her eggs 

 on the under surface of the leaf, depositing them 

 in small masses, and covering them with hair 

 from her tail. Each mass of eggs contains from 

 200 to 300, and when they are deposited the 

 female dies. About the end of July, according 

 to Kollar, the caterpillars are hatched, when 

 they appear of a dirty yellow, " with a black 

 head, and a black ring round the neck. They 

 are thickly covered with hair, and have four 

 rows of blackish dots along the back. Of these 

 dots, two pairs on the anterior part of the 

 back, and two pairs on the posterior part, are 

 larger than the rest. By these dots the young 

 caterpillars of the yellow-tailed moth are strik- 

 ingly distinguished from those of the hawthorn 

 butterfly." The caterpillars of our present sub- 

 ject, like those of the last, feed on the epidermis 

 of the leaf, and in like manner devour them, and 

 weave a web over themselves for protection. 

 After devouring the leaf they first attack, they 

 remove to the next, and construct a shelter, 

 within which they can feed at their ease. In 

 August they change their skins, and by the 

 middle of September they cease feeding, and in 

 November become perfectly inactive, and re- 

 main so during the most severe winters, being 

 unaffected by 60° below zero of Fahrenheit. 

 They commence their attacks on the trees early 

 in spring, even before the buds have begun to 

 unfold. About the end of April they change 

 their skins for the second time, and about the 

 end of May they change for the third time, at 

 "which period they appear of a reddish brown, 

 marked on the sides with whitish spots. After 

 this change they disperse themselves in all di- 

 rections, and are not fastidious as to food, for 



they attack alike the apple, the pear, the plum, 

 the oak, and the beech, &c. In June, pupation 

 takes place, when several caterpillars unite to- 

 gether, and, rolling leaves together in form of a 

 ball, form for themselves a common web, and 

 become dark-brown pupse. Kollar says, " They 

 prefer the damson tree for pupation, to which 

 they repair from the neighbouring apple and 

 pear trees, and undergo their change, to the 

 number of from five to twelve in a ball." About 

 the end of June the moths begin to renew their 

 species. Its effects are readily distinguished 

 from those of the winter moth ; the former 

 only eating the leaf, whereas the latter devours 

 both leaf and foot-stalk, leaving the trees per- 

 fectly denuded. Heavy rains naturally destroy 

 vast numbers of the females, should those occur- 

 during the period of their laying their eggs ; for 

 during the process they sit upon the surface of 

 the leaves completely unprotected, and are conse- 

 quently washed off. Water thrown on the leaves 

 by a powerful garden-engine will have a similar 

 effect. Birds are less useful to us in the case of 

 this insect than in that of most others, on ac- 

 count of the caterpillars being covered with 

 thick hairs on their backs, which produce a 

 burning and itching sensation when handled 

 without gloves, and hence are supposed to 

 have a similar effect on the throat or stomach of 

 birds when they eat them. Its natural enemy, 

 however, is a small hymenopterous fly, which 

 lays its eggs in those of the yellow-tailed moth, 

 making use of the egg for its food, and of the 

 empty shell afterwards for its habitation. Other 

 minute insects, chiefly of the field-bug tribe, de- 

 vour their eggs, and last of all its. insect enemies 

 is the ichneumon. Which lays its eggs in the body 

 of the full-grown caterpillar. The nests of eggs 

 are readily seen enveloped in a brownish cover- 

 ing or web, and should be removed and de- 

 stroyed at any time during winter. While in the 

 pupa state they enclose themselves within small 

 balls, attached generally to the lower branches, 

 and may be in this state captured at the end of June. 

 Bomhyx chrysorrhcBa Fabr., Bombyx phceorrhcea 

 Curtis, Porthesin chrysorrhwa Stephens (the 



brown - tailed 

 moth), fig. 184, 

 has occasional- 

 ly been very 

 destructive. In 

 1782 such were 

 its ravages that 

 Mr W. Curtis 

 wrote a trea- 

 tise in quarto 

 on it, and 

 prayers were 

 offered up in 

 some churches 

 for deliverance 

 from such a 

 scourge. The 

 poor were em- 

 ployed to col- 

 lect the webs at 

 Is. per bushel, 

 and so abun- 

 dant were they in the parish of Clapham, that 



BBOWN-TAILED WOTH. 



Male and female. 



