44 



FRUIT INSECTS 



Fig. 47. 

 moth. 



- Eggs of the bud- 

 Greatly enlarged. 



upon the skin and inner tissues of the leaf, usually on the under- 

 side along the midrib. A thin protecting layer of silk is spun 



over their feeding grounds, and the 

 skeletonized portion of the leaf soon 

 turns brown. Oftentimes when 

 working on the underside of a leaf 

 that touches an apple the little cat- 

 erpillar eats into the fruit in several 

 places, causing a blemish in the 

 mature apple as shown in Figure 48. 

 Most of this injury is usually at- 

 tributed to the summer brood of 

 codlin-moth larvae. Turning brown 

 in color in a day or two, the little 

 caterpillars continue to feed on the leaves during July, August 

 and a part of September, molting 3 or 4 times and getting about 

 half grown. Some of them leave the foliage and go into winter 

 quarters on the twigs early in 

 August. Before the leaves drop 

 all are snugly tucked away in their 

 very obscure silken winter homes 

 about I of an inch in length and 

 covered with bits of dirt or some- 

 times made under a convenient 

 piece of dead bud scale. There 

 is thus but a single broofl of th(^ 

 bud-moth annually. 



Five little parasites work upon 

 this insect in Europe, and at least 

 three parasites {Phytodietus vul- 

 garis, Pimpla sp. and Microdus 

 laticinctus) help considerably to 



check it in America. Birds also get some of the brown cat- 

 erpillars, and a large muddauber wasp, Odynerus catskillensis, 



Fig. 48. — Apple injured by 

 young bud-moth caterpillars in 

 August. 



