The Washington times., 1902-08-24

eaten through ae-wnen the main ribs.
and after the third mott the leaf is de-
vourcd. except for the midrib and it's
principal branches. After the fourth
molt the caterpillars begin to eat from
the edge of the leaf. and devour every
thing except the principal veins. Similar
work is done in the last stage on the
| full-grown and tough leaves.
A most peculiar kind of damage by
the species of caterpillar We have here
| has been observed By DE-. Lintner. in
Albany, y. Y. There, some summers
age. he found that ,the,ctips of many
twigs we're girdled by the caterpillars.
which had entirely removed the bark
for one-tenth of an finch. Such twigs
broke of and fell TO the ground, with
their leaves, This damage was 50 COM
mon that the sidewalks of The streets
and public parks, wherever the Ameri-
can elm was growing were sprinkled
with the newly fallen leaves.
THE young eatcrpillars drop down,
suspended by silken threads, at even
slight jarring Of the tree, and fire.
quently spin down without such dis
turbance. and are blown to considera-
bic distance by the wind. When nearly
full grown they are great travellers.
crawling down the trunk of the tree
upon which they were Matched and
across considerable stretch of ground
to ascend another tree. When they
occur in numbers an extensive migration
will always take place from a tree which
has been nearly dcfoliated, and the
species spreads mainly, if not entirely,
in this way. Just as is the case with
the gypsy moth, the caterpillars are car
ried by vehicles upon which they crawl
or drop, or upon the clothes of passers-
by, and in this way many trees upon
which there were no egg masses become
infested
The larval stage lasts on an average
from month TO five weeks When full
grown the larvae spin delicate grayish
cocoons of silk. mixed plentifully with
hairs. The mixture of hair is brought
about by the fact that the hairs are
harbed and rather loosely attached to
the body. When caterpillar begins TO
spin its cocoon the hairs Of its body and
those of the long black tufts back of
the head first become entangled with
the silken threads and are pulled out.
BY the time the cocoon has begun
to take shape the characteristic long
black tufts of hair have entirely disap-
PtdIeu llOn tne DouE CT lEe cater pilitr-
Later the shorter hairs of the body be-
come entangled and removed, and finally
many of the hairs composing the brush
like tufts upon the fore part of the body
are pulled out. and Just before it trans
forms to pupa the caterpillar bears but
a remote resemblance TO the individual
it was before it began TO spin.
These barbed hairs have scGken of
may occasionally produce considerable
irritation of the skin of people upon
whom the caterpillars may have crawled
or dropped from the trees. The larger
hairs are probably less troublesome
than the smaller, which have. in many
instances, caused much discomfort. Gre
ating more or less inflammation and
swelling
THE larva transforms to pupa within
a few hours after the completion OF the
cocoon. and remains in the pupal con-
dition fer from ten days to TWO weeks.
The cocoons Of this first generation,
while mainly spun On the trunk and
larger branches, a.c also spun TO very
extent unon the smaller
branches and twigs. and even on the
partly eaten leaves"