THE FIRE WORM OF THE CRANBERRY 1} 
larve, and even where the water had scarcely receded, larvie evidently 
two or three days old were found. Close search revealed the fact that 
many of the larve had hatched beneath the surface of the water, and 
had perished from want of air. A majority of the eggs found contained 
fully developed but dead larve, while in many cases the larva had 
hatched and had lived for a day or two between the upper and lowei 
surfaces of the leaf, before dying of lack of air. This first brood, as a 
rule, feeds for a day or two, or even longer, between the surfaces of the 
leaf, then climbs to the tip and spins up the terminal leaves, but does 
not usually eat off the tip so as to prevent further growth of the plant. 
As the plant develops, the more tender leaves. only are attacked, and 
either the upper or under surface of the leaf is eaten. The larva never 
eats. entirely through the leaf, but to the center only, and often only a 
few bites from different parts of the leaf. This first brood, as a rule, 
does no great damage, even though very numerous, because the larvie 
feed very largely on the old leaves, and become full-grown just about the 
time that the vines begin to grow vigorously. About the 10th of June, 
or before, the moths of this brood appear in force. While I had seen 
that the larve were very numerous, I was yet perfectly astonished at 
the vast number of imagines I found flying in the dusk, for an hour and 
a half before darkness set in. At other hours of the day they can 
searcely be induced to rise, but at this time they rise in swarms and fly 
and hover very much after the fashion of the mosquito. 
The duration of the life of the moth appears to be about five or six 
days, and their eggs may be found everywhere; scarcely a spray escapes; 
and I have found as many as fourteen on a single spray and four on a 
single leaf. By the 15th of June the moths were most plentiful, but they 
continued more or less abundantly throughout the season. About the 
beginning of July the second brood of larve appears, vastly more nu- 
merous than the first; its power to do damage is very greatly enhanced, 
and a difference in habit and more opportunity for destruction render 
it still more dangerous. The cranberries blossom just about the time 
when the second lot of larve begin to hatch, and the young larve im- 
mediately attack the blossom or young berry, eating just enough to 
destroy vitality,and then attacking another blossom. When the berries — 
and blossoms are either all destroyed, or the berries have fairly set, the. 
-larve no longer trouble them, but attack the leaves; and now they are 
not content to spin up only the tips and touch only what they eat, but, 
instead, they web up all the leaves of a spray and take a bite here, 
another there, and a third elsewhere, until they have destroyed every 
leaf on the spray. Where the vines are thick, two or even three sprays 
are spun together by a single larva which, by nipping from all the 
leaves, will destroy every one; the leaves lose vitality and turn brown 
rapidly, and the bog looks brown and dry “as though a fire had swept 
over it.” Not leaves only, but berries also, are thus spun up and killed 
in like manner. Nor does it take the larvee long to do their work. Dr. 
