10 



any effort made by the farmers of that region to arrest its progress, 

 either by the general apphcation of poisons or by the older resource 

 of ditching across the line of march and crushing the accumulations. 



The LESSER APPLE LEAF ROLLER {Tcnis maUvoraua) is reported to 

 have so intensified its injuries this season as almost completely to 

 obstruct, in some localities, the business of growing young apple- 

 trees for the market. At Normal, especially, in the grounds of the 

 Home Nursery Company, the mischief worked on the susceptible 

 varieties has been of a very discouraging character, and has even 

 disposed the proprietors to transfer their apple business to a west- 

 ern state. Possibly, however, the trees would have withstood the 

 attacks of this leaf roller if these had not been seconded by those 

 of the green apple leaf hopper {Empoa albopicta), which, by sucking 

 the sap from the leaves at the time the leaf roller is denuding them, 

 more than doubles the final effect on the tree. 



As a result of a short series of experiments made with kerosene 

 emulsion and with lime, at Normal, I learned that no liquid or 

 powdery application could reach a sufficient number of the larvae 

 secluded in the rolled and webbed leaves to make it at all worth using 

 for its immediate effects. If, however, the young trees were occa- 

 sionally sprayed with an arsenical poison, and especially if this 

 treatment were begun rather early in the season, I have no doubt 

 that perfect protection from this insect would be afforded. While 

 the poison would be little likely to reach the larvse rolled in their 

 silken nests, it would nevertheless take effect as they extend their 

 webs to cover fresh surface. 



Concerning the root web worm {Cramhus zeellus, Fernald), seri- 

 ously injurious to young corn in May and June, much additional 

 information is still to be desired, and I report here the facts already 

 made out, in the hope that other observers may thus be induced to 

 assist in the completion of the life history of the species, and may 

 help us to a fuller knowledge of its habits and of its injuries to 

 vegetation. 



Although working somewhat like the cutworms, it belongs to an- 

 other family of moths (the Pyralidfe or snout moths), and may 

 easily be distinguished from these pests by its habits and by the 

 character of its injuries. If a hill of corn damaged by this insect 

 be carefully examined, a mass of dirt, loosely webbed together, will 

 invariably be found just beneath the surface of the ground, close 

 beside the young stalk or among the larger roots. If the nest (ir- 

 regular in shape, and commonly an inch or tw'o in length) be opened, 

 a reddish, bristly, active worm, half an inch, or a little more in 

 length if full grown, will be found hidden within, the matted earth 

 evidently serving, as a retreat from danger. 



The central part of the nest is commonly occupied by a silken 

 tube, which extends more or less vertically downward into the earth, 

 often opening at the surface close beside a stalk of corn, by a 

 round orifice about the size of a wheat straw\ This tube is com- 

 monly an inch and a half or two inches in length, and within it 

 the worm may be found concealed. Sometimes the web lies hori- 

 -zontally, or nearly so, with its opening at the surface next the stalk, 

 often with the web attached to the latter, or even fastened by 



