THE APPLE-TREE CASE-BEARER : ITS OPERATIONS. 165 



measure about one-tentli of an inch in length, and are more curved at 

 their end than the mature form. From their small size and a color al- 

 most the same as that of the bark to which they are attached, they are 

 not readily noticed. 



In early sirring-, the larva? awake from their winter sleep, and trans- 

 port themselves to the swelling buds, upon which they commence to 

 feed. The leaves, as they develop, are attacked in turn, and where the 

 insect abounds, they are rapidly devoured. The younger trees show 

 branches which have been entirely defoliated, while others are left 

 leafless from the destruction of the buds. The young fruit is also 

 eaten into, until barely a shell of it is left. 



About the middle of Juno, the larvjB attain their growth, when they 

 cease feeding, and fasten their cases to the twigs, and, within them, 

 transform to the pupal state. Their pupation lasts for about three 

 weeks, when the perfect insects emerge, and deposit their eggs upon 

 the leaves, as before stated. 



Its Operations in an Orchard. 



The operations of this insect pest were first noticed in 1877, in the 

 orchard of Mr. William Fairweather, of the Densmore Apple Farm, at 

 McLane, Erie county, Penn. In that year he reports that of the 8,000 

 trees in his orchard, there was scarcely one which was not more or less 

 affected. On some of the smaller trees, the leaves were completely 

 skeletonized. The following year, the ravages were still more destruc- 

 tive, and large numbers of trees were rendered nearly leafless. In 1879, 

 as I learned from Mr. Fairweather, the injuries were less than in the 

 two preceding years, but from the number of cases observed upon his 

 trees at the time of writing (Jan. 17, 1880), he greatly feared that they 

 would again be in full force the coming summer, and extend their 

 operations "to an extent sickening to think of." A tree from which 

 he sent me some twigs thickly studded with the cases, had, he 

 thought, enough of the insects upon it to eat up every leaf as it ap- 

 peared . 



From a communication in relation to this insect subsequently re- 

 ceived from Mr. Fairweather, he informed me that the fears above ex- 

 pressed were not realized. Its ravages were not increasing, and during 

 the years 1880 and 1881, its depredations in his orchard had not been 

 serious. 



Attack of a Chalcid Parasite. 



Mr. Fairweather ascribes the diminution of the injuries to the bene- 

 ficial results of an attack which had been made upon the pest by a 

 small parasite, examples of which he had hatched from some pupa; of 

 the moths inclosed in a glass jar, and which he found to be "a small 

 and lively insect like a black ant, but less in size, and with wings." 



