2 APPLE. [1900 



mentioned as a personal observation of the writer's, not as a trouble of 

 the neighbourhood. 



In the past season much more serious complaints of presence of 

 the attack were sent me from near Worcester, also from near Boss, in 

 Herefordshire, and from Polegate, Sussex, thus showing a greatly 

 extended area of infestation. And with regard to amount of mischief 

 occasioned: this was mentioned by my Worcester correspondent "to 

 be causing considerable injury to the Apple trees in this county " ; by 

 my correspondent at Polegate, Sussex, as being to an extent which had 

 obliged him to cut off quite two bushels of infested twigs from about a 

 hundred and thirty trees, and that he also noticed the pest, " which 

 has increased to a very great extent this year," in an orchard about a 

 mile and a half off ; from near Ross the specimens were sent with the 

 remark accompanying, that "it appears to me a very serious pest, 

 and I am afraid, judging from this neighbourhood, that it is on the 

 increase." 



It is somewhat interesting to notice how, in the present state of 

 advance of horticultural observation, an attack like this, or, again, that 

 of the Pear Gnat Midge, can be brought into notice for identification 

 and application of preventive measures on its first appearance, and 

 {where these are carried out) the establishment of the pest be to a great 

 degree prevented. 



The mischief caused by the Pith Moth caterpillars may be easily 

 known by the cluster of blossom buds and leaves drooping and dying, 

 consequently on the caterpillar having bored up the centre of the shoot 

 immediately below them. This characteristic (that is, the clusters 

 drooping and perishing) should be particularly noticed, for thus the 

 attack may be distinguished from that of the caterpillars of the " Eye- 

 spotted Bud Moth," in which the grubs work amongst the opening 

 blossom and leaf-buds, and tie them together (see note).* The " Pith 



* In this case, although it appears that the caterpillars may at times tunnel 

 along the centre of the shoot, the regular course of life is for them to work in the 

 opening leaf and flower-buds, and presently tie the 

 central leaves and flowers together with silken web, in 

 which they turn to the chrysalis state, and from which 

 the moth has been recorded to come out in this country 

 during the second and third week in June. The eggs 

 are laid shortly after on the Apple leaves (sometimes on 



Tmetoceka ocellana. ^^^^^' °^ °^^^'-' ^^'"^^ *''^^^)' ^'^^ ^'^°" ^"^'" liatching the 

 Eye-spotted Bud Moth caterpillars begin to feed on the skin of the leaf, usually 

 and caterpillar. on the lower side. Towards autumn the caterpillars 



remove to the twigs, where they spend the winter in 

 silken spun cases, and in spring come out from them to attack the opening buds. 

 See my own Annual Beport for 1898, with references to European and American 

 writers on the attack ; and especially to the excellent paper entitled ' The Bud 

 Moth,' by Prof. M. V. SHngerland, Assistant Entomologist, Cornell University, 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N.Y., U.S.A., pp. 57-65. 



