THE APPLE 



65 



The Tent Caterpillar is another insect that is 

 often extremely destructive to apple foliage. This is 

 the creature that constructs the silken tent-like nests 

 so often seen in spring on the branching limbs of apple 

 and wild cherry trees. Its life-history is as follows : 

 The eggs are deposited during July in compact masses 

 of 200 or 300 each upon the twigs (e, c), and are 



Apple Tree Flea=Beetle 



(After Popenoe) 



covered with varnish (e). The following spring 

 they hatch into caterpillars that feed upon the tender 

 foliage and make a silken tent in a fork of the twigs. 

 They become full grown in about six weeks (a, b). 

 They then leave the tree and crawl about in search of 

 a suitable shelter to pupate in. Having found this — 

 beneath a board, or in the cracks of a fence — they spin 

 an oval, silken cocoon (rf), yellow when completed, 

 within which they change to pupae. In two or three 



