CRANBERRY INSECTS 



469 



around the body when at rest. In Massachusetts the moths fly 

 from early June till late July and appear a little earlier in New 

 Jersey. The female deposits her creamy white, oval eggs, 

 0.4 mm. in length, at the base of the food-plant ; before hatch- 

 ing they turn to a pinkish-red color. One female was observed 

 to lay 700 eggs in confinement. The eggs hatch in seven to 

 ten days and the young caterpillars soon begin to construct 

 the silken tube in which thoy live alongside the food-plant just 

 at the surface of the ground. The larviie feed on grass and sheep 

 sorrel and probably other plants as well as on the cranberry. 

 Most of the caterpillars become full-grown by November and 

 hibernate in the 

 larval condition 

 inside a tight 

 waterproof silken 

 cocoon to which 

 considerable sand 

 adheres. Some of 

 the belated cater- 

 pillars are said to 

 feed again for a 

 short time in the spring, but the majority transform the follow- 

 ing May or June to a pale honey yellow pupa, about one third 

 inch in length, without leaving the winter cocoon. The moths 

 emerge very irregularly during June and July. 



Co7itrol. 



The cranberry girdler, working as it does at the surface of the 

 sand beneath the layer of dead leaves and trash always found 

 in an old bog, cannot be reached with an arsenical spray. After 

 the larva has completed its winter cocoon it can withstand 

 submergence for several months, but as the cocoon is not formed 

 till November it is possible to destroy great numbers by re- 

 flowing the bogs for a week or ten days immediately after pick- 

 ing. Where water is not available for reflowing, badly infested 



Fig. 391. — Moth of the cranbeiTy girdler. 



