LEPIDOPTERA. 353 



ravages of plum-weevils, I would observe that wall-fruit can be 

 perfectly secured by a screen of millinet or close netting, which 

 should be put on as soon as the fruit is formed, and should re- 

 main till it begins to ripen. The opportunity that has lately been 

 offered to me for proving that the plum-weevil occasionally at- 

 tacks the apple also, the destruction of great quantities of stone- 

 fruit every year, and in some instances the entire failure of the 

 crop, from the ravages of this insect, and the interest that has 

 been taken in the subject by the " Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society," must be my apology for this digression, if the reasons 

 already given for it are not enough. 



The apple-worm has been long known in Europe, and its his- 

 tory has been written by Rosel, Reaumur, Kollar, Westwood*, 

 and other European naturalists. A good account of it, and of its 

 transformations, by Joseph Tufts, Esq., of Charlestown, Massa- 

 chusetts, was published in the year 1819, in the fifth volume of 

 " The Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal ;" and 

 Mr. Joseph Burrelle, of Quincy, Massachusetts, has also made 

 some remarks on the same insect, in the eighteenth volume of 

 " The New-England Farmer."! At various times, between the 

 middle of June and the first of July, the apple-worm moths may 

 be found. They are sometimes seen in houses in the even- 

 ing, trying to get through the windows into the open air, having 

 been brought in with fruit while they were in the caterpillar state. 

 Their fore-wings, when seen at a distance, have somewhat the 

 appearance of brown watered silk ; when closely examined they 

 will be found to be crossed by numerous gray and brown lines, 

 scalloped like the plumage of a bird ; and near the hind angle 

 there is a large, oval, dark brown spot, the edges of which are of 

 a bright copper color. The head and thorax are brown mingled 

 with gray ; and the hind-wings and abdomen are light yellowish 

 brown, with the lustre of satin. Its wings expand three quarters 

 of an inch. This insect is readily distinguished from other moths 

 by the large, oval, brown spot, edged with copper color, on the 



* " Gardener's Magazine," Vol. XIV., p. 234. 



t Page 398. See also some remarks on this insect in my •' Discourse before the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in 1832," page 42. 



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