450 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 
are frequently quite a nuisance. How pernicious they are upon 
fruit trees, even when their numbers are not excessive, is suffi¬ 
ciently shown in a communication from H. B. Ives, of Salem, 
Mass., published in Hovey’s Magazine, vol. i, p. 52. Mr. Ives 
removed all the eggs of these insects from three of his apple 
trees. He found twenty-one clusters of eggs upon these three 
trees. The rest of the trees in his orchard he left untouched. 
The eggs hatched and the young worms had commenced their 
ravages upon the tenth of May. He watched them “from time 
to time, until many branches had been spoiled of their leaves, 
and in the autumn were entirely destitute of fruit; while the 
three trees which had been stripped of the eggs, were flush with 
foliage, each limb without exception, ripening its fruit.” Dr. 
Harris states (Treatise, p. 283) that these caterpillars were quite 
abundant in the vicinity of Boston in 1848, ’49 and ’50; and 
that the horse-chestnuts planted beside the streets and in the 
parks of that city—trees which are so little liable to be attacked 
by insects—were almost entirely stripped of their leaves by 
them. 
Fortunately it is an easy matter to exterminate these insects 
from the trees which they invade, by picking off and destroying 
their eggs. These are readily found during the winter, the dead 
leaf adhering to the cocoon to which the eggs are attached, being 
conspicuous upon the naked twigs. Sometimes, though very 
rarely, little clusters of dead leaves will be met with adhering 
to the limbs of fruit trees, which have not been tied there by 
the vaporer moth, but by another creature belonging to this di¬ 
vision of the animal kingdom. The careful orchardist will 
hereby, when gathering the eggs of the vaporer moth, be some¬ 
times deceived, and put to the trouble of mounting into a tree 
and bending a limb towards him, by this impostor; though from 
the greater number of the leaves, their more dull and decayed 
appearance, and their being more loosely tied together, making 
a rattling noise when agitated by the wind or by shaking the 
limb, the cheat will generally be known at a distance of several 
feet. These counterfeit clusters of dead leaves originally formed 
the nest of a Palmer worm (Ckcetochilus pometellus) or some other 
worm having the same habit of drawing several leaves together 
