Orgyia Antiqua
or VAPOURER MOTH. This is one of the most widespread of injurious insects, and is common even within the limits of London. Its larvae are at times very hurtful to deciduous trees and shrubs of many kinds. The male moth is shown of the natural size in Fig. 774. The body is dark brown; the wings are rusty-brown, with markings of deeper and paler tints, and at the rear angle of each fore wing is a conspicuous white spot. The female has the wings reduced to tiny scale-like organs on each side of the heavy, clumsy body, which is covered with woolly, yellowish-grey pubescence. The larva is shown of the natural size in Fig. 775. It is covered with yellowish hairs. On the back of the fourth to seventh segments are long tufts of yellow or brown hairs; and on the back of the last segment, and on each side of the head, is a long black tuft of clubbed hairs. The larva may reach 2in. in length. When full fed, it spins, in crevices or among leaves, a slight greyish-brown cocoon of silk, largely mixed with its own hairs, and in this changes into a hairy pupa. The female emerges in autumn, and lays her eggs on her cocoon, where they pass the winter, the larvae emerging in spring.
Remedy. The best remedy is hand-picking the insects in all stages of development; the larvae especially are conspicuous.