Tussoc Moth makes an excellent impression of a dead leaf fallen from a tree. Young tussock moth caterpillars are blackish with long body hairs. They sprout brightly colored tufts of hair as they grow larger. A mature larva is 1.2 to 1.4 inches long, with a gray to brown body and shiny black head. Two long tufts of black hairs project forward from the head, and a similar tuft projects backward from the rear of the body. Dense, light brown patches of hairs and red spots occur on the first four and the last abdominal segments. There is an orange stripe on each side. The larval hairs are irritating to some people and livestock and may cause a serious rash. The hairs are not normally considered poisonous.
The cocoon is brownish gray and covered with hairs from the body of the larva. Cocoons usually are attached to foliage but may be found on tree trunks, rocks or other objects.
The adult moth is .5 to .8 inch long. The female, usually found in the vicinity of her pupal cocoon, has rudimentary wings and cannot fly. Females normally are grayish with the tip of the abdomen much darker. They have small thread-like antennae.
Adult males are gray-brown to blackish moths with feathery antennae and a wing spread of approximately 1.2 inches. The forewings are rusty brown and the hind wings grayish brown.
The egg mass, laid on the female pupal cocoon, contains about 300 white spherical eggs in several layers, all covered with a frothy substance intermixed with body hairs from the larvae. There is one generation per year. The adults appear from late July to early September. The insects overwinter in the egg stage. Eggs hatch in late May or early June after new foliage has appeared.(Colorado state university)
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