358 EXPERIMENT STATIO-N RECORD. [Vol. 36 



Two destructive fall caterpillars, J. S. Houser (Mo. Bui. Ohio Sta., 1 {1916), 

 No. 10, pp. 297-303, figs. 9). — Brief popular accounts are given of tlie walnut 

 datana caterpillar (Datana inlegerrima) and the yellow-necked apple cater- 

 pillar (D. ministra). These two leaf-eating caterpillars having somewhat 

 similar habits and appearance have for the past few years attacked walnut and 

 apple trees in all parts of Ohio during the late summer and early fall. 



Laspeyresia molesta, an important new insect enemy of the peach, A. L. 

 QuAiNTANCE and W. B. Wood {U. S. Dept. Agr., Jour. Agr. Research, 7 (1916), 

 No. 8, pp. 373-378, pis. 6). — In this preliminary paper the authors call attention 

 to the discovery in the District of Columbia and environs of an important 

 insect enemy of the peach believed to be new to this country and apparently 

 new to science. 



A technical description of it under the name Laspeyresia molesta, prepared 

 by A. Busck, together with comments on its relationship and possible origin, 

 are incorporated. The authors' observations of it during the summer and fall 

 of 1916 indicate that another formidable insect enemy of the peach and other 

 deciduous fruits has become established in America. The belief that it origi- 

 nated in Japan is strengthened by the rearing from pears received in this 

 country from Japan of a single specimen that can not be differentiated from 

 it. It is said to be generally present on peach trees in yards and elsewhere 

 in the city of Washington and adjacent towns in Virginia and Maryland, within 

 a radius of 15 or 18 miles. It is thought to have been present in the District 

 of Columbia for four or five years, specimens of injured twigs, the injury of 

 which was attributed to an unknown lepidopterous larva, having been received 

 by the Bureau of Entomology in the fall of 1913. A few examples of injured 

 twigs were received or collected during 1914 and 1915, but not until the fall 

 of the latter year were the injuries at all common. 



The larvae have been found injuring twigs of the peach (Amygdalus persica), 

 plum (Prunus spp.), and cherry (Pruims spp.), and the fruit of the peach, but 

 the plum and cherry have not shown such general infestation as observed for 

 the peach, which appears to be the insect's preferred food plant. However, 

 flowering cherries in the parks in Washington are very generally infested. In 

 one peach orchard observed by the authors, an examination in mid-September 

 showed from 80 to 90 per cent of the twigs to have been injured. Its injuries 

 to the twigs of bearing orchards, while important as interfering with normal 

 growth, are of less significance than the injuries of the caterpillars to the fruit. 

 Twig injury in nurseries, however, is of much more importance as the destruc- 

 tion of the terminal growing shoots results in the pushing out of shoots from 

 lateral buds, producing a much-branched and bushy plant unsuitable for 

 nursery stock. 



Its attack on the twigs begins in the spring when the shoots are from six to 

 eight in. long and continues until active growth of the tree ceases in the fall. 

 As the twig hardens, the larva may leave its burrow and feed more or less on 

 the exterior of the twig, cutting holes and pits into the bark and causing a 

 copious exudation of gum, rendering the injury quite conspicuous. The larvae 

 prefer tender, actively growing shoots, and their injury to these is scarcely 

 distinguishable from that of the common peach-twig borer or peach moth 

 (Anarsia lineatella) . The caterpillars pass from one shoot to another in search 

 for appropriate food and several shoots may be injured by a larva in the course 

 of its growth. The fruit may be attacked while quite green, the infestation 

 increasing as it approaches maturity. In attacking the fruit the young cater- 

 pillars rather generally eat through the skin at or near the point of attach- 

 ment of the fruit stem, the place being indicated by more or less fcass adhering 



