New Yorx Acricurturat Experiment Station. 297 
Small size of the egg-masses this year.—The egg-masses are said 
to contain from 300 to 400 eggs. Riley states’ that he found the 
number in five masses ranging from 3880-416. Compared with 
these figures the egg masses this year are very small as indicated 
by the examination of a large number taken in the vicinity of 
Geneva and from various sections of the State. They average only 
half this size, containing, as a rule, but about 200 eggs. Many 
were much smaller than this. As each female moth probably de- 
posits all of her eggs in one mass this indicates an unusual falling 
off in the number of eges deposited. | 
Tume of egg laying and period of ncubation.— In the latitude 
of New York the eggs are laid during the last week in June and 
first week in July. 
The young caterpillars are fully developed within the eggs 
before the summer is over, but do not escape until the following 
spring. On August 29, an examination of eggs showed fully 
developed caterpillars. Unlike the apple-tree tent-caterpillars 
which were found bent backward in the eggs examined, all of 
the caterpillars in about 100 eggs opened by the writer were bent 
forward nearly double so that the head and posterior part of 
the body came nearly together. 
The larva or caterpillar. The earliest caterpillars probably 
appear with the first warm days of spring. This season they 
were found about Geneva during the last week in March. The 
period of hatching, however, extends over a month or more, as 
young caterpillars that had not yet passed their first molt were 
found at Geneva as late as May 26, and colonies of newly hatched 
caterpillars were found at various times between, while by May 22 
large numbers of caterpillars had reached nearly full size. 
Growth.— Under normal conditions the caterpillars are full- 
grown within about six weeks, but in case they hatch before the 
leaf buds of their food plants have burst, their development is re- 
tarded by lack of food. Cold or inclement weather soon after the 
1 
14 Amer. Ent. and Bot., 2: 261. 
