PROCEEDINGS, 1915. 85 



past few years been recorded from many districts in the eastern half of 

 the United States, and is here recorded for the first time from Nova 

 Scotia. Although the extent to which this insect damages the apple 

 in Nova Scotia has not been accurately determined, nor has its dis- 

 tribution been carefully worked out, it has been taken from both ends 

 of the Annapolis Valley. Being an imported insect there is a possibility 

 of it becoming a serious pest; already E. W. Scott and J. H. Paine, in Bull. 

 113 of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture have recorded it as infesting 45 

 per cent of the buds in an apple orchard in Benton Harbor, Michigan. 

 This insect will receive careful attention in Nova Scotia during the next 

 few years. 



General Life Histories. 



All four of our species of budmoths have somewhat similar life his- 

 tories. They all pass the winter as larvae in hibernating cocoons: they 

 all emerge as the buds begin to swell in the spring, and bore into the open- 

 ing tips; they all feed in the same manner until the blossoms open, usual- 

 ly under cover of a mass of dead and partly eaten leaves. The date of 

 pupation varies, some pupating during or immediately after the blos- 

 soms period, some three or four weeks later. All pupate among the leaves 

 on the trees. In all species the eggs are deposited on the leaves, rosaceana 

 depositing its eggs in a mass, the remainder depositing them singly. In 

 R. nanella, the young larva acts as a tree leaf miner during the autumn; 

 in 0. consanguinana and S. ocellana the larvae act as semi-miners, al- 

 ways feeding under cover, but where possible tying two leaves together, 

 or the leaf to a limb or an apple, often disfiguring the fruit by feeding on 

 it. In A. rosaceana, the larvae feed on the leaf rather than in it. All 

 species are single brooded in Nova Scotia, and leave the leaves on 

 which they are feeding to form their winter hibernating cases with the 

 first frosts, to pass the winter as partly grown larvae. 



Extent of Injury. 



There has been much controversy in regard to the extent of damage 

 done by the budmoth entering the bud in the spring. The boring of 

 a budmoth larva into a bud very seldom prevents blossoming. Actual 

 count shows only 35 per cent of the blossoms in infested clusters to be no- 

 ticeably injured; the actual damage done, however, exceeds this. Counts 

 on Wagners in 1913 and 1915 show the set in blossom clusters infested to 

 be reduced 74.7 and 79.4 per cent respectivily, so by counting the num- 

 ber of buds infested with budmoth in an orchard, and then reckoning 

 that the percentage of reduction in crop will amount to about three quar- 

 ters of that figure, one can estimate fairly accurately the amount of dam- 

 age the budmoths are doing in an orchard. 



