INJURING THE LEAVES. 



45 



This species is remarkable in that two of the three 

 broods of moths which appear during the year are of 

 a bright orange color, while those of the third brood 

 are reddish-gray. It is an example of what natural- 

 ists call dimorphism. 



The eggs are laid in the spring on the unfolding 

 leaves of apple, cranberry, whortle berry and possi- 

 bly other plants, the lar- 

 vae soon hatching to de- 

 vour the tender foliage, 

 some of which they roll 

 into a protective cover- 

 ing. Here they continue 

 feeding for about a 

 month, when they pu- 

 pate within the folded 

 leaves, and a week or so 

 later emerge as small, orange-yellow moths. These 

 moths lay eggs for another brood of larvse, the imagos 

 from which appear in August, being also of the same 

 orange color. These in turn lay eggs for a 

 third brood of worms, which develop during Sep- 

 tember, and emerge during October as glistening 

 reddish-gray moths, which pass the winter in rub- 

 bish heaps, fence corners and similar places of con- 

 cealment, and deposit eggs on the unfolding leaves 

 of the various food plants of the larvae the following 

 spring. Thus this remarkable cycle of insect life is 

 completed. 



Fig. 16. Lesser Leaf-roller : a, larva 

 6, pupa; c, moth; d, rolled-leaf. 



