Gold-tail Moth

Gold-tail Moth 

(Euproctis chrysorrhoea), a moth of the family Lymantriidae, a dangerous pest of fruit crops and of many forest deciduous species. The moth has a wingspan of 35 mm and is white, sometimes with black spots on the fore wings. The tip of the abdomen has a tuft of golden hairs (hence the name). The moth is found in Europe, Asia Minor, northern Africa, and North America; in the USSR it is distributed in the central zone and, especially, the southern, fruit-growing zone. The young caterpillars hibernate in groups of 200–300 in nests made of leaves woven together with a web and securely fastened in the forks of thin branches. In years of massive reproduction the caterpillars can destroy all the buds and leaves on a tree and cause the loss of an entire harvest. Protective measures include treating trees with insecticides to kill the caterpillars and collecting and burning the winter nests.

REFERENCES

Dobrovol’skii, B. V. “Zlatoguzka na Donu i Sev. Kavkaze.” Uch. zap. Rostovskogo gosudarstvennogo un-ta, 1949, vol. 15, issue 6.