154 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETT. 



to Mr. Bailey and obtained some of these early visitants, which surely enough 

 yfere the YeTitahle carpocapso pomoneUa. In April they commenced to appear 

 with us in Lansing, and thus on I saw moths flying till the very last week of 

 June. 



DESCRIPTIOX OF MOTH. 



Eight here let me describe the imago (see /and // in cut), for true is it that 

 there is an astounding ignorance, even among our leading fruit men, as to the 

 appearance of this moth. Only last summer one of the most intelligent and 

 best informed pomologists of our State came to my house and reported the 

 codling moth in swarms about his apple trees. Upon inquiry I found this was 

 a daily occurrence ; I told him this must be incorrect, as the codling moth 

 was nocturnal, not flying by day unless disturbed. I then asked the color, and 

 found that they were white. Surely the ignorance as to some of our most com- 

 mon insects is quite as extreme, and far more real, than was that of the affected 

 Miss who, upon return from boarding-school, asked her brother if those hay 

 stacks were plows. 



The moth Avith wings folded is three-eighths of an inch long, and expands 

 more than six-eighths of an inch. The head, thorax, and abdomen are slim, 

 — the two former gray, specked with brown, while the last is ringed alternately 

 with gray and brown. The primary or fore wings are beautifully mottled with 

 gray and brown, while towards the tip is a large brown spot, with the lustre of 

 copper; beyond this and tipping the wings is first a gray, then a brown band. 

 The secondary or back wings are a lustrous brown with a light fringe. Be- 

 neath, the primaries have a copper lustre, while the secondaries are more gray- 

 ish. The eyes are black, between which are situated the antennae, which are 

 about two-thirds as long as the body. The tongue, or sucking-tube, is not 

 obsolete, as might be supposed, but is about twice as long as the head. 



HABITS OF THE MOTH. 



These moths, I have found by repeated experiments, will not live in confine- 

 ment more than a week; that they are as short-lived when unconfiaed is 

 donbtful. 



Many lepidopterous insects take no food whenfully matured, or in the imago 

 state; yet I have found, as reported by Dr. L3Baron, that they will sip sweet- 

 ened water when in confinement. As Dr. LeBaron states, they doubtless sip 

 the liquid sweets of flowers, very like the apple blossoms. 



These moths are nocturnal, remaining quiet and concealed by day, though 

 they will move if disturbed. They are seldom seen except they pupate in our 

 cellars or kitchens, and coming forth usually in the night fly to the windows 

 in their desire to get where they may revel in the midst of perfume and bloom, 

 and are impaled on the window pane, where they remain often for two or three 

 days. Last fall (1873) we kept affected apples in our kitchen, and all through 

 the weeks of late spring and early summer my wife caught these moths upon 

 our windows, some of which I have brought along that you may examine them 

 and hereafter know the moth. 



These moths soon pair, and then the female is ready to sow the seeds of 

 future destruction, — for which work she is well prepared, as by examining her 

 ovaries with a high power we may count as many as fifty eggs. Many of you 

 are familiar with the fact that in examining the ovaries of our fowls we find 

 groups of eggs of different sizes; these groups develop successively, from those 

 with largest eggs to those with smallest, at successive periods of ovulation or 



