The Grape-Berry Moth. 107 



1898. A correspondent reported to us that the crop was entirely 

 ruined by the insect in some vineyards in 1896 at Northeast, Pa. 

 In 1903 the fruit in a Catawba vineyard of 16 acres in Ohio was so 

 badly infested that it was unfit for use, even in making wine. The 

 grape-berry moth is doubtless in most of the vineyards of the coun- 

 try every j'ear, and the above records show that it is capable of 

 ruining the crop of fruit. 



In New York. — There are doubtless more or less " wormy " grapes 

 each year in practically every vineyard in New York State, so that the 

 grape-berry moth is a constant menace. But it seems seldom to have 

 been injurious since 1873 when it was first reported as increasing in 

 numbers in the Hudson Valley. In 1898 it was a serious pest in the 

 vineyard of a correspondent at Kendall, N. Y., and in 1902 reports 

 reached us of its ravages all through the Chautauqua grape belt. 

 From portions of some vineyards near Brocton, a loss of from 25 to 50 

 per cent was reported, and in one case 90 per cent of the fruit was 

 ruined. In 1903 and during the past j^ear, the insect wrought equally 

 as great destruction over a larger area in Chautauqua county. Many 

 grape clusters were badly injured soon after the fruit was set, as 

 shown in Figs. 17 and 19, and last July one could easily find clusters 

 in badly infested vineyards with more than two-thirds of the berries 

 "wormy." Thus the conditions are alarming in many vineyards in 

 the Chautauqua region. In none of the other noted grape-growing 

 sections of the state does the grape-berry moth seem to have attracted 

 attention as a pest in recent years. 



The Food-Plants of the Grape-Berry Moth. 



When the American grape-berry moth was first described and 

 named by Clemens in 1860, he recorded the caterpillars as feeding on 

 the fruit of the grape and wild raspberry, and on the leaves of sassa- 

 fras. When the insect attracted attention as a grape pest in 1868, 

 it was erroneously recorded as feeding on the leaves as well as the 

 fruit of the grape* and the error has clung tenaciously to the literature 

 ever since. During the next 30 years, there was added to the menu 

 of the grape-berry moth the following food-plants: blackberry blos- 

 soms! (Riley, 1870), roses and Vernonia or iron wood (Murtfeldt, 



*Packard first made this error (Am. Nat., II, p. 220, and part V, p. 336 of 

 Guide to the Study of Insects) in 1868, but both Packard and Riley corrected 

 it the next year (Am. Nat., Ill, p. 152, and Am. Ent., I, p. 177.) Yet the state- 

 ment was never corrected in future editions of Packard's Guide, and the insect 

 has been said by nearly every writer to feed on grape leaves. 



fMr. W. D. Kearfott writes us that this blackberry feeder is a quite different 

 moth known as Ancylus muricana Wlsm. 



