CHAPTER V 



APPLE INSECTS — BORERS AND MISCELLANEOUS 



The Apple Bud-borer 



Epinotia pyricolana Murtfeldt 



The cream or pinkish colored caterpillars, about J of an inch 

 long, of this Tortricid moth attack young apple trees both in 

 orchards and nurseries, and often the water-sprouts on old 

 apple trees. They mine through the opening terminal buds 

 and continue boring down the twig for an inch or two. Later 

 side shoots are also attacked, and it is often necessary to re- 

 bud trees being top-worked by budding. The insect has been 

 quite destructive in Missouri, Delaware, Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia, and as it occurs in nurseries may spread to other states. 



As its whole life-cycle occupies only about six weeks, there 

 are probably four broods annually in its southern range, the 

 second and third broods doing the most damage and its work 

 being the most noticeable in August. The ends of the twigs 

 are killed and a leaf petiole often remains attached to the tips 

 of infested twigs through the winter, thus indicating the pres- 

 ence of the insect, which usually hibernates as a full-grown 

 caterpillar in its burrow, but occasionally in a silken hibernac- 

 ulum or case covered with bits of bark and dirt on the trunk 

 or branches of the tree. The caterpillars transform in May, 

 and the little, bluish-gray moths prettily marked with brown 

 bands and white dashes and having a wing-expanse of about 

 I an inch, emerge and lay eggs from which come a brood of 

 the bud-borers in June. In July and September the second 



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