Egg clusters contain from 100 to 1000 eggs.
Newly hatched larvae are black with long, hairlike setae. Older larvae have five pairs of raised blue spots and six pairs of brick-red spots along their backs.
—The Gypsy Moth: Research Toward Integrated Pest Management, United States Department of Agriculture, 1981
The young caterpillars spin silken threads and hang down from the tree branches. Wind often breaks the threads and carries the caterpillars to nearby trees and shrubs. This is called “ballooning.”
—Carolyn Klass, “Gypsy Moth,” Insect Diagnostic Laboratory, Dept. of Entomology, Cornell University, 1981