452 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 
ent, forming but a single dot, which is slightly elongated. When preserved in 
balsam of fir this spider retains the black dots and pale rings and band, but 
the abdomen changes to a bright blood red and the thorax and legs to a honey 
yellow color. 
In a few other instances dead leaves will be found upon the 
apple and other trees during the winter; but these are chiefly 
single leaves at the tip ends of the twigs, which had withered 
prematurely from being ihfested with plant lice, and will not be 
liable to be mistaken for the work of the vaporer moth. One of 
the most remarkable pieces of mechanism may be met with upon 
the sycamore or button wood, where the dead leaf is drawn to¬ 
gether in such a manner as to form a little wheel, whirling 
around and sliding up and down upon the last joint of the twig, 
the bud at the end of the twig forming a knob or button which 
prevents this wheel from sliding off its axle, and a tube or socket 
in its centre the fourth of an inch long serves as a hub, prevent¬ 
ing it from turning askew. It appears to be an insect, perhaps 
a species of plant louse, which draws the sycamore leaf around 
the twig in this truly curious manner. 
Care should be taken to rid fruit trees especially from the 
vaporer moth; for whenever one of these insects takes up its 
abode upon a tree, a part at least of its progeny will be apt to 
remain for several generations, sustaining themselves af the ex¬ 
pense of the tree. In the winter, or before the foliage puts forth 
in spring, search should be made for their nests of eggs. They 
will be much more readily discovered than those of the common 
caterpillar. Occasionally a cocoon will be met with having no 
eggs upon it. In this the chrysalis is still lying unhatclied, or a 
male moth has been given out from it. It will be the safest 
course to strip the trees of all the cocoons found upon them, 
whether covered with eggs and foam or not, tearing them off 
from the larger limbs and cutting off the smaller twigs to which 
they are attached, and throwing the whole into the fire. No 
one but the veriest sloven will permit his fruit trees to be depre¬ 
dated upon by insects which can be so easily subdued as the va¬ 
porer moth. 
