One generation a year occurs in the north, but two or more happen in the southern United States.

[1] The larva is distinctive, with no close analogues, although it may be mistaken for the shed skin of a hairy spider or leaf debris.

[1] It has nine pairs of curly projections or tubercles of varying lengths from the flattened body, each densely covered in hairs.

The male has translucent wings, and the female is drab brown and gray, with yellow scales on her legs.

[1] Larvae live on the underside of the leaves of, and feeds on, a variety of deciduous trees and shrubs, such as apple, ash, birch, cherry, chestnut, dogwood, hickory, oak, persimmon, walnut, and willow.