22 



ish caterpillars, with shining, light chestnut-brown heads, and 3'ellow- 

 ish thoracic shields, pass the winter in a torpid condition within a 

 silken tube or cocoon, which resists the entrance of water. In New 

 Jersey the adults are found in Ma}^, on and around the edges of the 

 bogs; in Massachusetts they do not iiy until July, and there is evidence 

 that the worms do some feeding in spring before they actuallj^ change 

 to the pupal stage. This change to the pupa takes place in the tube 

 or cocoon made in the previous fall, and on Cape Cod at the latter part 

 of Ma}^ or in early June. The adult is a pretty little creature, with 

 fore wings expanding about three-hfths of an inch, and is one of the 

 long-snouted moths, the palpi or mouth feelers projecting well beyond 

 the head. The fore wings are rather narrow, very pale straw-3'ellow 

 in color, with smoky lines in the interspaces between the veins and 

 narrow silvery cross bands at the outer part, near the margin. The 

 hind wings are much broader and of a uniform silvery grav. When 

 the moth is at rest the wings are so closel}" wrapped around the body 

 that it looks like a narrow whitish cylinder about three-quarters of an 

 inch in length. 



The young worm is very 

 active and strong, and at 

 once begins the construction 

 of the silken tube, reen- 

 forced by bits of vegetation, 

 in which it lives. It works 

 about the running portion 

 of the plants extending 

 along the surface of the 

 sand in the stratum of fallen 

 leaves which always cover 

 an old cranberry' bog and 

 from which the delicate 

 Everywhere over an infested 

 area, but especially along its borders, these worms can be found in 

 film}^ silken galleries following the prostrate stems of runners, into 

 the surface of which they eat their way, destroying the vital part of 

 the plant and, especially next to the base of the runners, deeply gir- 

 dling the stem. They grow rather slowly, and not until November do 

 they make their coarse cocoon of mingled sand and silk that serves as 

 winter quarters. 



It seems probable that in Massachusetts there is only one brood of 

 the moths which is active in July. In New Jersey, on the other hand, 

 the moths have been found in every month from about May 21 to the 

 middle of September. There must be, therefore, at least two broods, 

 which develop very irregularly. With this difference in the life cycle 

 in the two States there is an evident divergence in food habits, for 



178 



Fig. 9. — Cranberry girdler; a, moth; 6, egg; c, larva; 

 d, segment of larva; c, pupa; /, nest of larva — all 

 enlarged (after Scudder). 



clusters of new rootlets take their rise. 



