408 MISC. PUBLICATION 657, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
Olene atomaria (Wlkr.), O. basiflava (Pack.), and O. vagans B. & 
McD. are sometimes common locally in the Northeastern States, and 
in general are oak feeders, although sometimes found on apple and 
birch. O. tephra (Hbn.) is reported from Quebec and Maine on oak. 
O. meridianalis B. & McD., is recorded from the Southeastern States 
on oak. O. cinnamomea G. & R. is found on elm and has been re- 
corded from New Hampshire and Massachusetts west to Wisconsin. 
O. plagiata (Wlkr.) (=pini Dyar) is found in the Northeastern States 
and from Quebec to Wisconsin. Its larvae attack jack pine, pitch 
pine, red pine, white pine, spruce, and sometimes fir. This species is 
an important forest pest, outbreaks having occurred in Wisconsin in 
1909-10 and 1922, causing considerable mortality over extensive areas. 
The Gypsy Moth 
The male of the gypsy moth (Porthetria dispar (.) ) has a slender 
body and is dark brown with blackish bands across the forewings. It 
flies well, by day, in a zigzag line of flight. The female is nearly white 
with wavy blackish bands across the forewings, and the abdomen is 
clothed in yellowish hairs. The wing expanse is about 2 inches, but 
because of the large, heavy abdomen she does not fly. The eggs are 
deposited in masses usually of 400 or more and are packed in yellowish 
hairs removed by the female from her body. They are deposited on 
under sides of branches, on tree trunks, under loose bark, in cavities, 
on fences, in stone walls, in fact, any place near where the larvae 
pupated. The mature larva is from 114 to 214 inches long. The head 
has yellow markings, the body is dusky or sooty-colored and hairy, 
and on the dorsum is a double row of 5 pairs of blue spots, followed by 
a double row of 6 pairs of red spots (fig. 82). The pupa is dark, red- 
dish brown, has a sprinkling of reddish hairs, and is attached to some 
object by a few silken threads. 
DistrinutTion.—The gypsy moth was accidentally introduced into 
Massachusetts from Europe about 1869. At present most of New 
England, excepting the northern half of Maine and probably some of 
the colder areas in New Hampshire and Vermont, is infested to some 
extent. Several local infestations have been found in the eastern part 
of New York, also infestations embracing some 700 square miles in 
the northeastern part of Pennsylvania. In New Jersey a severe infes- 
tation was found in a plantation of blue spruce near Somerville in 
1920. These trees had been imported from Holland about 1910, prior 
to the enactment of the Federal Plant Quarantine Act, and there seems 
to be no doubt that the pest was introduced into New Jersey with the 
shipment of trees. Eradication work in New Jersey was begun soon 
after the infestation was discovered, and the insect was found at that 
time in scattered localities embracing about 400 square miles surround- 
ing Somerville. As far as is known no egg clusters have been found 
in the State since 1935. A small infestation was found in 1914 at 
Bratenahl, near Cleveland, Ohio, but this was promptly exterminated. 
In 1923 an area known as the “Barrier Zone” was established by 
the Bureau of Entomology in cooperation with the State of New 
York. This zone embraced an area of over 8,000 square miles extend- 
ing from Long Island Sound east of the Hudson River (excluding 
Westchester County, N. Y.) to the Canadian border, a distance of 
