i6 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Description. The 'male moths have a wing spread of about 

 i J inches, are pure white with a satiny luster on the fore wings 

 and have a conspicuous reddish brown tuft at the tip of the abdo- 

 men [pi. 2, fig. 5, 6]. Sometimes there are a few black spots on 

 the fore wings. The antennae are white and fringed with pale 

 yellowish hairs. The females are the same size and color as the 

 males except that they have no black spots on the wings and the 

 anal tuft-is larger and blacker in color while the antennae are shorter 

 and with shorter fringes. 



The eggs, laid in July in masses of 200 to 300, are usually placed 

 on the underside of the leaves [pi. 2, fig. 1], where they are covered 

 with brown hairs from the tip of the abdomen. They hatch in a 

 short time and the young feed during the rest of the season on the 

 surface of the leaves, a few days only being required to skeletonize 

 them. The caterpillars begin at once to make a nest [pi. 2, fig. 7] 

 in which they hibernate while still young. It is constructed on the 

 twigs and is made by drawing together a few leaves, lining them 

 with silk and inclosing them with a mass of silken threads [pi. 10]. 

 These tents are so firmly secured to the twigs that they can be 

 removed only with considerable force. 



The young or overwintering caterpillar is easily recognized by 

 its black head, dark color and particularly, by the two conspicuous 

 tufts on the anterior two abdominal segments, and the two circular 

 papillate reddish elevations on the dorsum of the sixth and seventh 

 segments. The hibernating caterpillars are found in silk-lined 

 pockets within dense firm webs, which are torn open with difficulty. 



Hibernating larva. It is sparsely clothed with long, brownish, 

 barbed hairs, about \ inch long, and with the head and body dark 

 brown or black. There are two conspicuous reddish dorsal tufts 

 on the first and second abdominal segments, rather pale, median, 

 sublateral, reddish lines on the dorsum of third, fourth and fifth 

 abdominal segments and a conspicuous, oval, reddish, tubercular 

 process on the dorsum each of the seventh and eighth abdominal 

 segments. Labrum pale whitish. The anterior margin of the 

 thoracic shield with a pair of sublateral, oval, pale orange markings, 

 and with a large, paler, lateral tubercle below. The second and 

 third thoracic segments are thickly studded with black tipped 

 tubercles, the sides and intervening space being pale yellowish. 

 There is a sublateral line of pale yellowish white, the dorsal margin 

 of a row of conspicuous lateral tubercles, each bearing a spreading 

 fascicle of long hairs. There is a stigmatal row of large, dark 

 brown tubercles lying in a broad band of pale yellowish white. 

 The true legs are dark brown, the pro legs brown with golden-yellow 

 tips. 



