No. 104.] 97 



as in directions so often published. Tliird, if the caterpillars have 

 been permitted to feed to maturity upon the trees, and thereafter to 

 enter the ground immediately beneath for their transformation, the 

 soil under the trees to the depth of from four to six inches should 

 be thoroughly worked over so as to crush the tender pnpiB. 



Either one of the above measures, if properly used, will be 

 eflectnal in arresting the attack. If all are employed, immediate 

 success would be insured. 



The Apple-Leaf Bucculatrix. 



Through Dr. Sturtevant, of the N, Y. Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, a communication was received from Mr. Malcom Little, of 

 Malcom, Seneca county, N. Y., stating that the apple orchards in 

 that vicinity were infested upon the branches and the fruit with 

 objects such as sent upon some twigs. They had not been seen 

 before, and it was asked what they were, and if they M-ould probably 

 prove injurious. Answer to the following effect was returned : 



The twigs received were thickly covered on one side with the 

 cocoons of the apple-leaf Bucculatrix — Buccidatrix pomifoliella 

 Clemens. A piece of twig an inch and a quarter in length, and 

 one-eighth of an inch in diameter, had upon it thirty-three of the 

 cocoons. From the small size and the general appearance of the 

 cocoons they are often mistaken for insect eggs. They are white, 

 about one-fourth of an inch long, as thick as an ordinary pin, and 

 show upon their exposed surface five or six prominent longitudinal 

 ribs. 



The insect is an injurious one. Where it abounds, the cater- 

 pillars consume such an amount of the foliage as seriously to inter- 

 fere with the production of the fruit. It displays a remarkable 

 facility for increase, and every proper means should, therefore, 

 immediately upon its discovery, be resorted to, that its spread may 

 be arrested. 



The parent is a small moth belonging to the Tineidce — that divis- 

 ion of the Lepidoptera that embraces the smallest species of the 

 order. There are two annual broods of the insect. The cocoons" 

 sent to me are of each brood. Some of them were spun in July, 

 and have given out the insect, leaving only the empty pupa-case 

 within the cocoon. The moths that emeri>;ed from them laid cirgs 

 from which caterpillars were hatched, which might have been 

 observed feeding upon the leaves in September, if attention had 

 been giveii to the eaten foliage. The caterpillars make their 

 cocoons during October, and upon opening those that are the 

 freshest-looking and unbroken, their pupoe may be found, which 

 are destined, if not njean while destroyed through parasitic or 

 atmos-pheric agency, to remain in that state throughout the winrer, 

 and to give out the moth in the month of May next. 



Itemedies. — This injurious pest is most vulnerable in either its 

 [Assem. Doc. No. 104.] 13 



