18 



Fig. 24. 



a leaf at once, are the first stage of the White-marked Tussock-Caterpillar, or as 



Dr. Fitch styles the insect, the American 

 Yapourer Moth (Orgy La leucostigma S. and 

 A.) Each egg has a deep hollow on the 

 top giving it the appearance of a tiny 

 opaque white bead. The caterpillars which 

 come out of these eggs in the early part of 

 summer (fig. 23, L, a young caterpillar) — 

 the end of May or beginning of June — 

 are remarkably pretty creatures. When 

 full grown (fig. 24) they are over an inch 

 Fig. 23. long, of a bright yellow color, with thin 



yellow hairs along the sides of the body ; the head is bright coral red, the next segment 

 has two long pencils of black hairs projecting forwards ; and the last segment but one, a 

 single similar pencil pointing backwards; on the fourth and three following segments 

 there are short thick brush like tufts of yellowish hairs j and on the ninth and tenth two 

 little coral-red knobs or warts. 



These caterpillars feed singly on the 

 leaves of apple, plum, and a large number 

 of other trees; sometimes, when they' are ■ 

 numerous, doing a good deal of damage. 

 When full fed they spin their thin silken . 

 cocoons on twigs of the trees which they J 

 frequent, or on fences ; in the former case J% 

 they draw down a leaf as a covering, and 0& 

 firmly attach it to their cocoon. The male 

 cocoon is white, or yellowish, and so thin 



as to shew the 1 insect through it (fig. 23 d, the male chrysalis) ; but the female cocoon is 

 twice as large and much more firmly constructed, and contains also a different shaped 

 and much larger chrysalis (fig. 23 c). The insect remains about a fortnight in the chrysalis 

 state, and then comes forth in the form of a moth. The male (fig. 25) has broad ashen- 

 grey wings, which expand about an inch and a quarter ; the fore-wings 

 have a few indistinct black lines across them, and a white crescent- 

 shaped dot near the lower corner, the antennas are broadly and beau- 

 tifully feathered, the tips of the plumes bending forward and approach- 

 ing each other. The female, on the other hand, is extraordinarily 

 different, and would never be suspected of laying claim to the title of 

 moth ; she has the merest rudiments of wings, which are not observable 

 except on close inspection, and thin simple antennse ; in fact she is 

 more like an animated bag of eggs than anything else. (Fig- 23 a 

 represents her attached to her cocoon.) Being unable to fly, she re- 

 mains on her cocoon, where she is found by her mate, whose boastful 

 ostentatious flight is the origin of the English name of " Yapourer.'' 

 After pairing, the female lays her eggs upon the cocoon, covers them with the curious 

 frothy matter, which becomes hard and brittle and protects them from the weather, and 

 then — her work accomplished — drops down and dies. 



The best remedy for these insects, when sufficiently numerous to be troublesome, as 

 they often are, is to go round the orchard during the winter, and take off all the cocoons 

 that have eggs attached to them. They can be at once discovered by their attendant 

 withered leaf. Those that have no egg masses on them should be left, Mr. Biley recom- 

 mends, as they either contain the empty male chrysalis, which is harmless, or some friendly 

 parasite. This work can be accomplished at the same time as the search for the egg- 

 bracelets of the Tent-Oaterpillars is carried on. 



13. The Yellow-Necked Apple-Tree Caterpillar (Datana ministra, Drury). — In 

 the summer of 1865, many fruit-growers in the neighborhood of Toronto, and in other 

 parts of the Province, were alarmed by the appearance upon their apple trees of masses of 

 strange-looking and very voracious caterpillars. The first intimation usually given of the 



Fig. 25. 



