i68 THE TUSSOCK MOTH 



pupal state lasts but a week or ten days. The great 

 majority of them never awaken from it, but the 

 parasites which have fed on them come forth in due 

 time to attack the next brood. The females emerge 

 helpless, wingless, fragile, and delicate, in no way 

 resembling their former state of existence. They 

 have no " new woman " proclivities, but seem con- 

 tent to live their lives on the little habitations in 

 which they spent their brief period of rest. The 

 males, equipped with handsome wings, fly gaily 

 about during the few hours of their life as perfectly 

 developed Moths. The females deposit their eggs on 

 the woolly cocoons in which they slept, carefully 

 covering them with a rough, white, waterproof coat- 

 ing. These coatings are conspicuous marks, and as 

 each encases some two hundred or three hundred 

 prospective larvae they should be gathered and 

 destroyed. 



Many species of insects pass the long winter as 

 inert pupae. Some survive in the larva form and some 

 in perfect development ; but the Tussock Moth is 

 of those which pass the winter in the egg state. 

 Farther south they sometimes produce two broods in 

 a season, but the white-coated egg masses appearing 

 on the trees in the fall will not awaken to new life 

 till next spring's leaves are spread for a feast. 



