178 Bulletin 190. 



The insect lias not limited its injuries to greenhouse plants, how- 

 ever, for Davis, who seems to have been the first to breed the insect 

 in this conntrv, found it in 18U3 borins^ in the stems and feedino^ 

 on the leaves of celery in Michigan. And in 1900 Forbes reported 

 it as feeding on the leaves of sugar beet in Illinois lields. 



Its food-plants. — In addition to the several plants mentioned 

 above, the insejct may include in its menu almost any soft-leaved 

 greenhouse plant. In the horticultural greenhouses here, it has 

 been especially troublesome on lettuce, sweet peas, clover, parsley, 

 cinerarias, chrysanthemums, geraniums, strawberries and cucumbers. 



Its work. — The injury wrought by the pest on cinerarias is well 

 shown on the leaves in figure 47. The caterpillars usually work on 

 the under sides of the leaves eating over irregular areas through to, 

 but leaving the upper skin of the leaf. Similar work is done on 

 other thick-leaved plants, like chrysanthemums and geraniums. 

 The thin leaves of lettuce and parsley were eaten entire, while those 

 of sweet peas and clover were skeletonized, as shown in upper part 

 of figure 49. 



Often the caterpillars exhibit their rolling or tying habits and 

 two or three small leaves may be loosely tied together with silken 

 threads, or on larger leaves silken bands are stretched across from 

 one large vein to another, often resulting in partially folding or 

 kinking the leaf ; the caterpillar works under the silken bands in 

 the fold, as shown in upper right-hand corner of upper leaf in 

 figure 47. But many times there is no tying or rolling of the 

 leaves, the caterpillar feeding openly on the under side under a few 

 silken strands. 



Its appearance and life-story. — The adult insect is a small 

 rusty -brown moth with somewhat obscure blackish markings on its 

 front wings ; its size and general appearance is well shown in figure 

 48. In greenhouses the moths may be found resting during the 

 day (see figure 48 for resting position) in angles made by the frame- 

 work, and also out of sight on the plants. They fly readily when 

 disturbed, but soon alight and rapidly run to the under side of the 

 object on which they alight; when cold, they are less active, and 

 thus ^nore easily captured. They are attracted by lights. 



The much flattened, elliptical, translucent eggs of the insect are 



