1858. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
341 
The Fall Web-Worm—No. XVII. 
A caterpillar which feeds upon the leaves of different 
trees and forms large cobweb-like nests near the ends of 
limbs, has been excessively abundant the present au¬ 
tumn. Within the sphere of my own observation these 
nests have been at least three or four times as numerous 
this year, as at any time time before during the past 
twenty-five years. They are a current topic of conversa¬ 
tion, and many persons suppose them to be the same 
kind of caterpillars which form nests somewhat similar 
upon apple and cherry trees in the month of June. 
Almost every one with whom I happen in company, 
inquires of me respecting this insect, and I doubt not 
an account of it will be acceptable to the readers of 
the Country Gentleman. 
The caterpillar which forms the nests alluded to, is 
known in some sections of our country by the name of 
the Fall Web-worm. It comes from the eggs of a mil¬ 
ler or moth of a kind analogous to what are termed 
Ermine moths in England, from their clean white color, 
resembling that of the ermine fur. These insects per¬ 
tain to the order Lepidoptera and the group or family 
Arctiidce, which family is distinguished chiefly by hav¬ 
ing the antenna; or horns pectinated, as it is termed, 
that is, resembling the teeth of a comb, and the mouth 
furnished with a very short coiled tongue. And this 
species, in allusion to the web which the larva forms, 
has been named Hyphantria textor by Dr. Harris, 
each of the words of this name having the same im¬ 
port, and meaning a weaver, the first being derived 
from the Greek and the other being Latin. 
The moth from which our Fall Web-worms are bred 
comes abroad mostly in the month of J une, though in¬ 
dividual ones may be met with at other periods of the 
year. It measures an inch and a quarter or three- 
eighths across its spread wings, and is of a milk-white 
color throughout, without any dots or spots on its wings 
or body. It is quite dull and sluggish in its motions, 
and remains asleep during the day time. It is usually 
found clinging to the leaves of bushes, and a pin may 
be thrust through it before it appears to awake and 
flutter its wings. 
This moth glues its eggs to the under surface of a 
leaf growing at or near the end of a twig. Its whole 
stock of eggs are placed together, in a flattened mass, 
side by side. The eggs are of a pale green color, al¬ 
most white, and are more or less covered over with a 
soft white wooly substance. The egg state continues 
about three weeks, varying somewhat, no doubt, with 
the temperature of the weather. From eggs which I 
saw one of these moths depositing on the 22d of June, 
part of the young worms were found hatched on the 
11th of July, and it was two or three days later before 
all of them had given out their inmates. 
When they first come from the shell, these worms 
are so small and their jaws so weak, that they are only 
able to eat the tender pulpy part of the leaf on its 
under side, leaving the tougher transparent skin of the 
upper surface entire. But when one or two leaves 
have been thus fed upon, they acquire sufficient 
strength to consume the skin of the upper surface, and 
then only the fine net work of veins is left. And after 
three or four leaves have been thus gone over, their 
jaws acquire sufficient strength to devour the whole of 
the leaf except the coarse vein in the middle and por¬ 
tions of some of the largest veins which branch from 
this mid-vein. Leaves in each of these three stages of 
erosion may often be seen in the nest, at the end of 
the twig where the worms first commenced their opera¬ 
tions. 
As soon as they come from the shell and commence 
feeding, the young worms begin to form a web for their 
protection, by travelling about upon the leaf on which 
they were born, spinning a fine thread as they go, and 
carrying these threads around the twig from which the 
leaf grows, they draw it down and tie it thereto. And 
as they increase in size they extend their web around 
the next leaf below, and the next, proceeding down¬ 
ward in this manner, until they reach the fork at the 
base of the twig. It is in and around this fork that 
the main nest is constructed, threads being carried 
from one branch of the fork to another, and also around 
any other twigs or limbs which chance to grow con¬ 
tiguous thereto. Thus a large irregular web is formed, 
a foot or more in diameter, loosely woven of threads 
running in every direction, resembling a ma«s of cob¬ 
webs spun by spiders, among which are the ragged re¬ 
mains of the leaves, and entangled here and there in 
the threads are dry black grains, the castings of the 
worms, many of which, on any jar of the limb, shake 
out and fall to the ground. The silken threads of 
which these nests are formed, particularly those spun 
after the worms are nearly grown to maturity, possess 
a considerable degree of strength, so that they com¬ 
monly do not become torn away and disappear from 
the trees, until the sleet and hail of the winter’s storms 
scour and cleanse the limbs from these unsightly ap¬ 
pendages. 
This worm is a general feeder, subsisting upon the 
leaves of a great variety of trees and shrubs. I have 
even met with a nest, in one instance, upon the elder 
—a shrub which has been currently regarded as most 
repulsive to insects. And it is, therefore, probable 
that these worms are able to nourish themselves upon 
any of the deciduous trees of our country. There are 
certain kinds of trees, however, of which they are 
particularly fond, and which suffer greatly from their 
attacks. The ash appears to be their greatest favorite, 
especially young thrifty trees of this species. Such 
trees may frequently be seen, in autumn, wholly 
stripped of their leaves, and with their trunks and 
limbs through their whole length coated over with the 
webs of these caterpillars. The present year this phe¬ 
nomenon is common. Next to the ash they seem to be 
most fond of the cherry, particularly the wild black 
cherry, on which tree numbers of their nests may 
everywhere be seen. In addition to these the walnut, 
the plum, the apple and the willow are attractive to 
them. In the orchards in this vicinity more than half 
the trees have had one or more nests of the Fall Web- 
worm upon them, the present year. 
These worms, or caterpillars as they may more ap¬ 
propriately be termed, are quite variable, the indivi¬ 
duals in the same nest often differing very much in 
their size and colors. When young they are pale, yel¬ 
lowish white, thinly clothed with long whitish hairs, 
with two rows of black dots along the back, and on 
each side of each ring of the body three smaller black¬ 
ish dots in a transverse row with those on the back. 
When nearly or quite mature, they are smallish cater¬ 
pillars about an inch long, thinly clothed with whitish 
hairs of various lengths, interspersed with a few black 
