lo Bulletin 124. 



daily observation here at the insectary from the time it awoke 

 from its winter's sleep in April, 1S96, until it passed through its 

 wonderful transformations into the pretty little moth, from whose 

 beautiful and oddly-shaped eggs the little caterpillars hatched in 

 the fall and soon made their preparations for their long winter's 

 rest. While its life history is similar to that of the cigar-case- 

 bearer (Bulletin 93) its habits are quite different and present sev- 

 eral interesting phases of insect life. 



How it passes the wi?iter. — In our cages the little creatures 

 began to go into winter quarters as early as August 26th ; they 

 were then minute, less than half-grown, orange-yellow caterpil- 

 lars, encased in very small pistol-shaped suits, which were firmly 

 attached to the bark, usually on the smaller branches. These 

 hibernating cases are about one-half as large as those shown nat- 

 ural size at c, plate i , and they are shaped like the much enlarged 

 case shown at b in the extreme upper right-hand corner of plate 

 I. Where the insect is quite numerous, it may be easily found 

 in its winter quarters. 



About seven months of the pistol-case-bearer's life is spent in 

 idleness in its snug little case on the twigs of the trees. 



Its spring appearance a7id habits. — The little caterpillars awake 

 from their long winter's fast very early in the spring, as soon as 

 the buds begin to swell. In 1896, the little cases were loosened 

 from the twigs soon after April ist, and the march of the hungry 

 caterpillars for the buds began ; by April 15th, they were at work 

 in full force on the buds. By eating or boring small holes, 

 scarcely larger than a pin in the swelling fruit and leaf buds, the 

 little creatures did much damage very early in the season. On 

 April 24th, we examined the large orchards of Messrs. Yeomans, 

 at Walworth, N. Y., and found the pistol-case-bearers so thick in 

 one apple orchard that it seemed as though there was one case to 

 every two or three buds on the trees ; the buds were just begin- 

 ning to open. 



As the caterpillars continue feeding on the opening buds, they 

 soon find that their winter suits or cases are too small for their 

 growing bodies ; and they proceed to build on extensions at both 

 ends and along the lower edge. 



Its pistol-shaped suit. — Unlike the cigar-case-bearer (Bulletin 93) 



