CRANBEERV INSECT PROBLEMS. 23 



it probably would be found uiosl satisfactory to hold the winter flow- 

 age initil July 1, or even mid-July, thereby sacrificing whatever 

 berries might IiaA'e l)eeu har\ested. 



CRANBERRY BLOSSOM WOBM.^ 



The cranberry blossom worm is a recentl}^ discovered cranberry 

 pest in New Jersey, injury from this particular species not having 

 been reported from other cranberry sections. There is little doubt, 

 however, that the blossom worm has been causing losses, at least on 

 Xew Jersey cranberry bogs, for many years; and, though its injury 

 may have been noted from time to time, no attempt appears to have 

 been made until recently to study the insect or to control it. It is 

 apparent, also, that the amount of loss occasioned by the feeding of 

 this insect has not been given due consideration, and it is not realized 

 how great this loss may be. 



Character of Injury. 



Feeding is at first confined to skeletonizing the leaves or eating 

 pieces out of the leaves', beginning at the margin and working toward 

 the midrib, or boring into the buds, thus spoiling them for fruit 

 production. The insect might be termed a budworm, since it destroys 

 many of the buds, but its feeding becomes more noticeable in the 

 blossoming season, when it cuts off the blossoms near wdiere the 

 stem joins the flower, and the ground then may be found littered with 

 severed flowers. This habit of the worm is very wasteful of food, 

 because many more blossoms are cut off than are consumed after 

 the worm again goes to the ground. 



Sometimes small round holes are bored into the young berries, but 

 tiie worm does not remain within the fruit, as does the fruitworm. 

 During the remainder of the season the eating of tender foliage is 

 continued until growth is completed in late summer. 



Description and Seasonal PTtstory. 



Worms first appear on the bogs in late May and early June, 

 hatching from eggs deposited the previous fall on the litter beneath 

 the vines. Winter flowage appears to have no detrimental effect on 

 the eggs and does not prevent them from hatching. Feeding con- 

 tinues, as outlined above, throughout the summer, and probably most 

 of it is done at night, since the worms usually are found concealed 

 in the trash in the daytime. The full-grown worm is about an inch 

 in length, chocolate brown, with the head shining light broAvn. A 

 whitish stripe runs lengthwise along each side of the smooth and 

 well-rounded bod\ (fig. 21). 



1 Eniplaca niiiata Grote. 



