TUSSOCK-MOTH. Any moth of the family Liparidte, a name suggested by the tufts of hairs, often bright-eolored, upon the caterpillars. The moths are dull-colored and the females of some species are wingless. Twenty species occur in the United States. The group includes some fa mous enemies of fruit, shade, and forest trees. Two imported species, the gypsy moth (q.v.) and the browntail moth (Euproctis chrysor rkra), do great damage in New England. The latter species flies during midsummer, when the female lays from 200 to 300 eggs underneath leaves near the tips of branches and covers them with hair. The larva: appear in from two to three weeks, and skeletonize the leaves. They also feed on apple and pear fruits. In late Sep tember they retire into eases formed of leaves, attached to the twigs by silken threads, and remain there until the leaf-buds open in the spring, feeding upon the young foliage, flowers, and fruit until June, when they pupate. The
caterpillars when abundant are annoying to hu man beings from the mechanical irritation to the skin caused by their barbed hairs.
The white-marked tussock-moth (He»?croeampa leucostigaia) is a well-known enemy of shade and fruit trees in the Eastern United States. The female is wingless, the male small and in conspicuous. The overwintering eggs are laid in a glistening white frothy mass, attached to the outside of the female's cocoon, which is usual ly placed on a tree trunk. The young caterpil lars hatch in the spring and feed upon the leaves. There are two or three generations each year. Winter pruning and burning of the hibernacula of the former species, and summer spraying the larvte of the latter with arsenites, have been ree ommended. Consult Holland, The Moth Book (New York, 1903).