104 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



In the nursery it is preeminently necessary that these pests 

 should he destroyed, and the nurseryman owes it both to his patrons 

 and himself that the work should be thoroughly done. No other 

 leaf-eating insect is so liable to be disseminated by means of young 

 trees, and every time specimens are introduced into a new locality, 

 even though the species may be already present, the work of destruc- 

 tion is given a new impetus. It is difficult to convince those most 

 interested, of the easy practibility of picking these cases off nursery 

 stock. I have in mind an instance where a nurseryman of unusual 

 intelligence, whose stock was infested by the leaf-crumpler, who was 

 advised by one of the leading entomologists of the State to put boys 

 in the field to pick the cases off, but who regarded the idea as non- 

 sensical and impracticable. And he was only convinced of the ease 

 with which the work could be performed when shown the results of 

 a practical experiment made to test the matter, in which a boy was 

 placed in one of the infested fields of apple stock to gather all the 

 cases on the young trees. In two hours, thirty rows, three hundred 

 yards long, were gone over, and a half peck of the larval cases gath- 

 ered. When shown this half peck of destroyers, our friend was con- 

 vinced, and at once hired boys to go over his fields; and afterwards 

 expressed himself as surprised and pleased with the result. 



THE APPLE-LEAF SKELETONIZER. 



This insect is one of the most destructive species with which the 

 nurseryman has to contend, rivaling 

 in the extent and seriousness of it, 

 injuries that species which, I think, 

 must head the list of leaf -eating nur- 

 sery pests — the lesser apple leaf -rol- 

 ler ( Teras Miniita^ Robs.} 



It seems very generally distributed 

 throughout Illinois, having been ob- 

 served, during the past season, doing 

 serious injury to apple trees both in the 

 orchard and nursery in McLean, Cham- 

 paign and Morris Counties. It was 

 first reported from this State, a quarter 

 of a century ago, and does not, as yet, 

 seem to have become destructably nu- 

 merous either in the Eastern or far 

 Western States. 



THE APPLE-LEAF SKELETONIZER. 



The life history of the species may be briefly stated as follows: 

 The small, purplish, grey moth, expanding scarcely half an inch, lay 

 their eggs, probably on the leaves or tender twigs of the apple late 

 in the spring or early in summer; the larvae soon hatch and begin 



