1877.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



U3 



times insects, sometimes frost, or occasionally 

 other accidents will cut oft" a crop, and then 

 there is some chance for its successor not 

 wholly to disappoint. 



COMMUNICA 7 JONS. 



THE STRAWBERRY LEAF-ROLLER, 



[Anchylopera fragariee.) 



BY C. V. RILEY, STATE ENTOMOLOGIST, ST. LOUIS, MO. 



I have just received the following from Mr. J. 

 R. Gaston, of Normal, 111. : 



"I send you by same mail with this a small 

 box containing chrysalis and larva of a leaf- 

 roller that was very destructive on our straw- 

 berry plants last season, and I find the larvoe 

 bright and happy now, ready to commence 

 business as soon as warm weather comes. Do 

 you know of any remedy? If there is no prac- 

 tical way of heading them off", we will have to 

 give up strawberry culture here until they leave. 

 Would be glad to hear from you when you have 

 leisure to do so. Very truly yours." 



The worm sent is that named in the heading, 

 and I send you herewith what I wrote about it 

 nine years ago in my first Report. The fact of 

 hibernation as larva is new and interesting, but 

 does not affect the practical recommendations. 



Strawberry Leaf-roller. — a, larva, nat. size; 6, head and 

 thoracic joints of same, d, anal joint; c, moth, enlarged. 



The above figure represents an insect which 

 devours the leaves of our strawberries. A more 

 perfect picture of the moth is given enlarged at 

 Plate 2, Figure 26, and of the natural size at 

 Figure 27. It was first described in the Januaiy 

 number of the American Entomologht, from 

 which I take the following account of it. 



For nearly two years, we have been acquainted 

 with a little greenish leaf-roller, measuring about 

 one-third of an inch (Fig. 80, a), which in cer-* 

 tain parts of North Illinois and Indiana has 

 been ruining the strawberry fields in a most 

 wholesale manner; and which also occurs in 

 Canada, judging from an account in the Canada 

 Farmer of August 1, 1867. It crumples and folds 



the leaves, feeding on their pulpy substance, and 

 causing them to appear dry and seared, and 

 most usually lines the inside of the fold with 

 silk. There are two broods of this leaf-roller 

 during the year, and the worms of the first 

 brood, which appear during the month of June, 

 change to the pupa state within the rolled-up 

 leaf, and become minute reddish-brown moths 

 (Fig. 80, c), during the fore part of July. After 

 pairing in the usual manner, the females deposit 

 their eggs on the plants, from which eggs, in 

 due time, hatches a second brood of worms. 

 These last come to their growth towards the end 

 of September, and changing to pupse, pass the 

 Winter in that state. 



We first heard of this leaf-roller in the Sum- 

 mer of 1866, when it did considerable damage at 

 Valparaiso, Indiana, and we were informed by 

 Mr. N. R. Strong, of that place, that in 1867 they 

 continued their depredations with him, and de- 

 stroyed ten acres so completely as not to leave 

 plants enough to set half an acre, and that in 

 consequence of this little pest, in conjunction 

 with the White-grub, he has had to abandon 

 strawberry culture. 



When we met the ad interim committee of the 

 Illinois State Horticultural Society at Lacon, in 

 the beginning of July, 1868, we received from 

 these gentlemen a quantity of infested straw- 

 berry leaves, from which in the course of the 

 next two or three weeks we bred many of the 

 moths. These specimens had been collected at 

 Mr. Bubaugh's place, near Princeton, Illinois, 

 where they were said to be very abundant, and 

 to have completely destroyed one strawberry 

 patch containing several acres. 



Subsequently, we received another lot of speci- 

 mens from Mr. W. E. Lukens, of Sterling, 

 Whiteside County, Illinois, with the following 

 remarks upon this very important subject: 



"Where these insects are thick I would never 

 think of raising strawberries. It is strange that 

 I have not noticed any of their work upon this 

 side the river; while on the south side for a mile 

 up and down they are ruining the crops of ber- 

 ries. Removing the plants does not take with 

 them the moth nor the eggs, so far as has been 

 observed. A gentleman by the name of Kimball, 

 at ProphetstoAvn, had his crop a few years 

 ago entirely destroyed by this insect, though it 

 amounted in all to two or three acres, I hear 

 of a great many men in other places having 

 their crops burnt up with the sun, and have no 

 doubt that it was this leaf-roller, and not the 



