16 



THE APPLE-BUD WOEM. 



(Eccopsis malana.) Fernald. 

 Order Lepidopteea, Family ToKTRiciDiE.) 



[Devouring the buds at the terminal ends of the branches of apple 

 trees, and, later in the season, living in a short, yellowish tube or 

 case, and feeding upon the leaves ; a small, naked caterpillar, of a 

 greenish or reddish color.] 



In the early part of the season many of the orchards in Northern 

 Illinois present a blasted appearance on account of the leafless con- 

 dition of the terminal ends of many of the branches. This partial 

 defoliation is the work of a small greenish worm, which devours the 

 terminal buds, and afterwards feeds upon the leaves growing near 

 the outer end of the branch. They seem to confine their attacks 

 wholly to trees of the Apple kind, as I have never found them upon 

 any other trees than the Apple and the Transcendent Crab-apple, 

 a tree which appears to be a cross between one of our common 

 Apples and the Siberian Crab-apple. 



These Bud-worms are of a yellowish-white color, and are tinged 

 on the back with pink or green. The head and cervical shield are 

 yellowish ; the former is marked with a black dot on each side above 

 the jaws, and the jaws are tinged with reddish. 



The eggs from which these worms hatch are deposited singly upon 

 the terminal buds, and the young worms, after devouring the buds, 

 fasten the petiole, or leaf-stalk of the leaf which grows nearest the 

 terminal end of the branch, to the branch, forming a sort of burrow 

 between the leaf-stalk and the branch. This leaf formerly grew at 

 the base of the terminal bud, but by the time that the Bud-worm 

 has devoured the terminal bud, the latter has, by the formation of 

 new wood below it, been pushed away from the leaf to the distance 

 of two or three inches ; and it is to this newly formed wood that 

 the petiole of the leaf is fastened. 



This Bud-worm usually remains in its burrow during the daytime, 

 and comes forth at night to feed upon the blade of the leaf whose 

 petiole it had fastened to the branch. After devouring this, it feeds 

 for a time upon the newly-formed wood at the end of the branch, 

 sometimes burrowing a short distance into it. 



