gregarious and live in tents or webs that they construct by pulling together the edges 
of one or more leaves and lining them with silk (fig. 90). They feed from May to 
October, then craw] to the ground and pupate in loose cocoons to spend the winter. 
Old, abandoned nests often remain on trees throughout the winter. There is one 
generation and a partial second or two per year in the North, and up to five in the 
South. This species often seriously defoliates small groups of trees, especially trees 
growing more or less in the open. 
F-519526 
Figure 90.—Nest of the poplar tentmaker, Clostera 
inclusa, torn open to show the larvae. 
Other species of Clostera frequently encountered are C. albosigma (Fitch) on 
aspen; and C. apicalis (Walker), C. brucei (Henry Edwards), and C. strigosa 
(Grote) on aspen and willow. None is very important. 
The yellownecked caterpillar, Datana ministra (Drury), occurs in southern 
Canada and throughout most of the Eastern United States. Its food plants include 
many species of fruit, shade, and forest trees. Important forest and shade tree hosts 
include paper and yellow birches, basswood, elm, oak, maple, butternut, walnut, 
mountain-ash, hophornbeam, and honeylocust. The adult has a wingspread of about 
50 mm; its forewings are cinnamon brown and marked with irregular dark lines. 
Full-grown larvae are about 50 mm long and are moderately clothed with long, soft, 
white hairs. The head is jet black; the prothorax, bright orange-yellow; and the 
body, marked longitudinally with alternate black and yellow or whitish stripes. 
Adults appear during June and July. Eggs are laid in masses of 100 or more on the 
undersides of the leaves. The larvae feed in colonies (fig. 91) near the ends of twigs 
and branches. When disturbed, they elevate both ends of the body. At maturity, they 
drop to and enter the soil to depths of 5 to 10 cm where they pupate and spend the 
winter. There is one generation per year (/222). 
Damage is seldom serious in the forest, although heavily infested trees may be 
completely defoliated. Fruit, shade, and ornamental trees are injured most severely. 
216 
