Insects injurious to fruits . abits,and lives but a few days, when,having provided for the contin-uance of its species, it —The egg-clustersshould be sought for and de-stroyed during the wintermonths. When the caterpillarsare young, they will drop, sus-pended by a silken thread, inmid-air, if the branch on whichthey are feeding be suddenlystruck ; advantage may be takenof this habit, and by swinginga stick around, the threads maybe gathered in with the larvse attached to them. When thecaterpillars have become half grown, the trees should befrequently inspected, early in the m
Insects injurious to fruits . abits,and lives but a few days, when,having provided for the contin-uance of its species, it —The egg-clustersshould be sought for and de-stroyed during the wintermonths. When the caterpillarsare young, they will drop, sus-pended by a silken thread, inmid-air, if the branch on whichthey are feeding be suddenlystruck ; advantage may be takenof this habit, and by swinginga stick around, the threads maybe gathered in with the larvse attached to them. When thecaterpillars have become half grown, the trees should befrequently inspected, early in the morning, and the congregatedmasses crushed and destroyed with a stiff broom or someother equally suitable implement. During the day they areso constantly on the move, that a young tree thoroughlycleansed from them in the morning may be crowded againbefore evening. To avoid the necessity of constant watch-ing, strips of cotton batting, three or four inches wide, shouldbe tied around the tree about half-way up the trunk; these. 56 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE APPLE. bands should be tied tightly in the middle. Each caterpillaris furnished with four pairs of fleshy prolegs, which arefringed with small horny hooks, and on its trying to passover the cotton these hooks get so entangled in the fibresthat further progress becomes very difficult, and is seldompersisted in. A shower of rain will pack the fibres of thecotton somewhat, but where the string fastening it is tiedaround the middle, the upper half washes down and makesa sort of roof overhanging the lower portion, which in greatmeasure protects it from the weather. These larvse are seldom abun-dant for many years in succession,for in times of great plenty theirnatural enemies multiply withamazing rapidity. Several par-asites destroy them. Two speciesof Ichneumon flies prey on them,also a two-winged Tachina fly,closely resembling the Red-tailedTachina fly, Nemorsea leucanise (Kirkp.) (Fig. 46), whichattacks the army-worm, but this fl
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