192 EXTERIMENTAL FARMS 



5-6 EDWARD VII., A. 1906 



larch plantation near North Andover, Mass. In 1886 Dr. H. A. Hagen published in 

 the Canadian Entomologist, an article on its injuries to the European larch in 

 Massachusetts. In 1892 Mr. J. G. Jack, as related in Insect Life, vol. IV., p. 105, 

 states that the insect had been introduced into Massachusetts for a number of years, 

 and that its ravages had sometimes been quite noticeable in the Arnold 'Arboretum. 

 Mr. Jack wrote from Berlin in an article entitled ' Notes of a Summer Journey in 

 Europe,' which appeared in Garden and Forest for February 24, 1892, p. 87, and says 

 of this insect that ^ the European larch is sometimes seriously injured and' is often 

 killed by the larvse of this moth, which eat out all the interior of the leaves, leaving 

 oidy the dry, hard, shrivelled epidermis.' He also points out that the Japanese larch, 

 both in Germany and at the Arnold Arboretum, is not attacked by the insect. 



The numbers of the larvae upon the trees at Ottawa in May last were not large 

 enough to have any serious effects upon either the growth or appearance of the trees; 

 but I regret to find this avitumn that the small cases of the larvae are enormously more 

 abundant than they were last spring. The winter cases are very slender and vary from 

 2i to 4 millimetres in length by about half a millimetre in diameter. They are open at 

 the end and are almost cylindrical in shape, like a cut off leaf. For that reason they are 

 easily overlooked. There were among these larval cases a very small percentage which 

 were curved after the manner of the winter cases of the Cigar Case-bearer of the Apple ; 

 but it is possible that -these may have been the cases of another species. The cases of 

 the full-grown larva? of the Larch Case-bearer are after the same pattern as the winter 

 cases, but are thicker and resemble more nearly those of the Cigar Case-bearer by being 

 tapered slightly to each end. They are very little longer than the winter cases but 

 have a much larger diameter, being over one millimetre at the widest part; and tlae 

 end is somewhat pinched in. The colour is pale drab. The caterpillars have a curious 

 habit, when full grown, of fastening themselves in the centre of a fascicle of leaves, 

 where they are very difficult to detect. There is only one brood in the year, the moths of 

 which appear in J une. They are very small, not expanding more than cne third of an inch 

 when the wings are opened, of an ashy satiny gray colour, with long, slender antennoB. 

 After pairing, the females lay their tiny yellow eggs on the needles of the larch. These 

 soon hatch, and the larvae eat their way into the slender needles of the empty skins of 

 which, subsequently, they make the slender cases in which they pass the winter, attached 

 to the twigs of the trees. As soon as the buds begin to swell in spring, these minute 

 caterpillars revive and feed upon the young leaves. When a caterpillar attacks a leaf, 

 it eats a hole in the side, and, as it consumes the interior portion, it protrudes its body 

 from the case until it can reach no further without leaving the case. In spring the 

 young caterpillar grows rapidly, and its winter case soon becomes too small for it; 

 so, it is split down the side, and the empty skin of another leaf is inserted. This opera- 

 tion is repeated from time to time when necessary, until full growth is reached. Some 

 cases from successive additions have a ridged or striated appearance. Pupation takes 

 place inside the case, and the moths emerge from the upper end. Up to the present 

 time nothing in the shape of a practical remedy is recorded. 



Through the kindness of Mr. A. Scheck, of the German Consulate, in Montreal, I 

 have received the following interesting account of the habits of this insect, in Ger- 

 many, from Mr. Rudolph Japing, Forest Assessor, Muenden, Hanover, Germany: 



' Th3 moths of Coleophora laricella, Hbn., fly during the day time in May and June. 

 The females lay yellow eggs on the needles, which in 6-8 days turn to a grayish colour. 

 Upon hatching the young caterpillar eats its way into a needle, consumes the interior, 

 and from the empty skin makes a small bag in which it lives until September. During 

 winter the caterpillar remains in this bag, generally on the top of the branches, more 

 seldom in crevices of the hark. In spring it is again found mining in the new needles, 

 and s3on has to enlarge its bag, which it docs by joining to it a part of a new'y hollowed 

 out needle. In this bag the insect changes to a chrysalis in April and May, the moth 

 emerging at the end of May. 



