PITH MOTH. 11 



running along the inner edge of the wing from the base to the ex- 

 tremity, this being of various widths, or having two or three branches 

 diverging towards the middle of the wing. The dark part is more or 

 less varied with tawny, and the light with most minute specks of 

 black ; but the great variations of colouring make it almost impossible 

 to describe it serviceably.* In the three specimens before me the 

 right and left fore wings vary from each other to some degree in every 

 instance, as seen by a two-inch object glass. The fringes are grey. 

 The hinder wings are grey, with the fringes paler. The head and face 

 white ; the horns {antenn<z) fuscous, with paler rings. 



The specimens sent showed, as figured at p. 9, the change of the 

 caterpillar to the chrysalis condition taking place in the tunnel which 

 it had worked out along the centre of the twig, or at the extremity of 

 it, where the empty case is figured as partly exposed in a destroyed 

 leaf -bud at figure 4. Figure 3 shows another specimen lying amongst 

 the "frass," caused by its working in the tunnelled twig. The 

 chrysalis was about three-sixteenths of an inch long, and the sheaths 

 of the antennfB remarkably noticeable. The caterpillar was of a 

 reddish or brownish colour ; but I am unable to give the details, 

 consequent on illness at the time being much in the way of my own 

 observations, and also, after much search, I have been unable to find 

 a detailed description of the larva of this species of Laverna. 



The description of the habits of the larvae, as given by Herr 

 Muhling,f is that they hybernate under the bark of an Apple twig 

 close by a bud. In May they bore onwards into the young growing 

 shoot, and feed on the pith (whence the name of Pith Moth). They 

 also eat up the middle of the stem beneath the bunch of flowers, and 

 thus cause the budding blossoms to wither and perish, even to the 

 extent of the destruction of the whole bunch. 



Comparison of these notes with those of our British observers 

 mutually confirm each other, and attention of Apple growers should 

 especially be given to the distinguishing characteristics of this infesta- 

 tion being that the larva or caterpillar feeds within the stem, and there 

 or at the tip of its working, partly exposed in a leaf-bud, it turns to 

 the chrysalis state. Thus, from cutting off the food supplies, the 

 cluster of Apple buds perishes; but, as noted by Mr. Webster at p. 10, 

 I do not know of any instance being recorded of the flower-buds being 

 "injured individually," though of course where the mischief has pro- 

 gressed " they droop collectively." 



* For minute description of what is considered the ordinary marking, with 

 notes of some diiierences of colouring, see Staintou's ' Tineina,' pp. 239, 240. 



t See observations by Herr Miihling quoted in ' Praktische Insektenkunde ' of 

 Dr. E. L. Taschenberg, pt. iii. p. 287; and 'Die Pfianzenfeinde ' of Herr Kalten- 

 bach, p. 781. 



