GRAPE INSECTS 453 



and Missouri. It has been most destructive in Kentucky, West 

 Virginia and North Carolina. 



The parent moths emerge in the latter part of July and usually 

 disappear before the middle of August in the latitude of West 

 Virginia. The female moth has an expanse of one and one half 

 inches ; the male is somewhat smaller. The front wings are 

 opaque brown-black ; the hind wings are transparent, narrowly 

 bordered and streaked along the principal veins with violet- 

 brown. The legs are orange, and the abdomen is crossed by 

 two yellow bands. 



The moths are most active in the heat of the day, when they 

 may be seen flying rapidly near the ground or resting on the 

 vines or other low vegetation. In form, color and movement 

 they have a striking resemblance to some of the larger wasps, 

 for which they are readily mistaken by the casual observer. 



The female deposits her oval chocolate-brown eggs, about 

 2V inch in length, singly or more rarely in pairs on the leaves 

 or bark of the vines, or on the leaves or stems of grasses or 

 weeds growing under the vines. Each female lays about 400 

 eggs ; they are attached rather loosely, and usually fall to the 

 ground before hatching. They hatch in about three weeks. 



On hatching, the young larva at once burrows into the soil in 

 search of a grape root on which to complete its development. 

 After reaching the root, it burrows under the bark for a time, 

 but as it increases in size it is able to eat out all the wood and 

 inner bark of the smaller roots, leaving only the outer bark intact. 

 Most of the larvae are found a foot or more from the base of the 

 vine. The infested roots are either greatly weakened or killed 

 beyond the point of attack, and if many larva) are present, 

 the vine may suffer severely ; only a small amoinit of bearing 

 wood is produced, and the size of the crop is consequently small. 



The larva continues to feed most of the time during the first 

 winter and by the next fall is nearly full-grown. It spends the 

 second winter in a silk-lined cavity in its Inirrow in the grape 



