240 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
in the accompanying letter, Mr. Chapin stated that these insects had 
been noticed in his locality for three years, and seemed to be rapidly in- 
creasing. In 1876 the trees were seriously injured, one-fourth of the 
leaves in a part of his orchard containing the insects. He had noticed 
them in many orchards, and felt sure that they extended over considera- 
ble territory. The latter part of the same month specimens were re- 
ceived from Prof. J. H. Comstock, of Cornell University, with the remark 
that it was common in orchards in some parts of the State of New York. 
Early in April the larve began to change to chrysalides, and after 
about ten days of chrysalis life, moths began to appear, and they con- 
tinued to issue until the middle of May. At this time Mr. Chapin wrote 
that the moths were very abundant in his orchard upon the trunks and 
leaves of the trees. 
Although the eggs have not as yet been observed, they are probably 
laid upon the leaves, the young larva hatching out in the early part of 
June. The worm folds the leaf by drawing the edges together, so that 
the upper surface is within the fold, and the whole thus forms a hollow 
case without an opening (Pl. I, Fig.3, b). In this it lives protected, 
feeding only upon the parenchyma. The worms (PI. U, Fig. 3, a) are 
found throughout the summer and autumn, there being, according to 
Mr. Chapin’s observations, but one annual brood. Upon the approach 
of winter the worm lines the folded leaf inside with silk, and falls with 
it to the ground, where it remains in the larval state until the following 
April or May, when the transformations take place as already described. 
Just prior to the emergence of the moth, the chrysalis partly works its 
way through the back of the leaf, to facilitate the exit of the perfect 
insect. 
In a paper read before the Western New York Horticultural Society, 
in the fall of 1877, Professor Comstock urges the very simple and ob- 
vious preventive for the injuries of this insect of raking together all the 
leaves in an infested orchard, soon after they fall in the autumn, and 
burning them, thus destroying the inclosed worms. When these are 
actually feeding on the tree their injuries may be arrested in a nursery 
or young non-bearing orchards, by syringing upon them water in which 
either Paris Green or London Purple has been stirred at the rate of 1 
pound to the barrel. 
The colors of the moth (PI. I, Fig. 3, e) are white, with brown molt- 
ings and shades. It was briefly described by Clemens, in 1860,* under 
the name of Anchylopera nubeculana, and subsequently more fully char- 
acterized under the genus Phoxopteris, by Zellert, who gives a figure of 
the right upper wing, which differs somewhat from the more common 
form as bred by me. 
DESCRIPTIVE. 
PHOXOPTERIS NUBECULANA.—Larva—Length when fall grown 11.5. Color greenish yellow. Head 
horizontal, rather narrow, gamboge yellow, with dark trophi. Cervical shield somewhat paler, occu- 
pying nearly the whole dorsal portion of prothoracic joint, and having a conspicuous black spot near 
each outer hind corner. Anal shield of same color, with two less conspicuous spots, which may coalesce 
and form a crescent. Piliferous spots rather large, paler than body, well relieved and normally placed. 
Chrysalis—Length 9™=. Color yellowish brown. Wing sheaths reaching to 4th abdominal joint; 
antennal sheaths not quite so far. Anterior and posterior borders of each abdominal joint armed dor- 
sally with a transverse row of minute, decurved spines. Anal joint quite sharp. 
*Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1860. 
t Beitr. z, Kennt. N. A. Nachfalter, p. 249. 
