Effects of Weather on the Forest Tent Caterpillar <i>Malacosoma disstria</i> Hbn., in Central Canada in the Spring of 1953

Abstract

Sweetman (1940) suggested that unfavourable spring weather is probably the most important natural check for the forest tent caterpillar, Malacosonza disstria Hbn. He observed that warm weather in April or early May that induces hatching, followed by a week or more of cool weather, frequently destroys the caterpillars. Blackman (1918), Tomlinson (1938), and Hodson (1941) have reported similar observations.