winged adults, this species is superficially similar in appearance to Euproctis similis (native to Europe) and Hyphantria cunea (native to North America), but female E. similis have a yellow tail tuft and H. cunea lacks tail tuft coloration. The female lays one cluster of 200 to 400 eggs, typically on the underside of a leaf. The egg cluster is covered with hairs from her anal tuft. The larva is very hairy, brown with white markings, and two prominent red spots toward the tail end. The hairs provide protection from predators; the larva incorporates some into the cocoon within which it pupates. The species overwinters communally as larvae within a tough, silken tent constructed around branch-tip leaves and anchored to twigs. In areas where the species is abundant, these tents are a familiar sight, and can be seen on a huge range of plants, especially in late fall and winter when unaffected leaves have fallen. Distribution Native This species can be found throughout Europe, except in the most northern countries, also in the westernmost countries of Asia, such as Turkey, Syria and Israel, and the countries across the northern parts of Africa. Charles H. Fernald and Archie H. Kirkland recount historic mentions of brown-tail moths dating back to 1500s, describing outbreaks in Paris, London and Berlin so severe as to completely strip all trees of leaves. Carl Linnaeus described the species in the tenth edition (1758) of Systema Naturae. Invasive The brown-tail moth is an invasive species in the United States and Canada, having arrived in Somerville, Massachusetts, circa 1890 and becoming widespread there and in neighboring Cambridge by 1897. Initial outbreaks were most evident in pear and apple trees. Doctors reported "poisonings" (skin rash) far worse than poison ivy rash. Within a few years it was seen as a serious, fast-spreading, horticultural and health problem. Through the early parts of the 20th century it was present in much of New England from eastern Connecticut to Maine, and northward into New Brunswick, Canada, but the 1906 introduction of the parasitic tachinid fly Compsilura concinnata to counter spongy moths collaterally impacted brown-tail moths. By the late 20th century the habitat was reduced to the coast and islands of Maine, and also parts of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Cold and wet weather hinders re-expansion of the population outside its current territories, although starting in 2015 there has been a population spike and territory expansion