100 N. S. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



THE OBLIQUE BANDED LEAF ROLLER, ARCHIPS ROSACEANA 



HARR. 



By Allan G. Dustan, Asst. to Dominion Field Officer. 

 Dominion Entomological Laboratory, Annapolis Royal N. S. 



fpHIS species is one of the commonest leaf rollers found in our Pro- 

 *■ vince, where it does considerable damage to the foliage in spring 

 and early summer and again in the fall. The spring and summer 

 injury is caused by the larvae in the more advanced stages of develop- 

 ment, which live in nests formed by rolling or folding and tying together 

 leaves of apple, pear, plum and many other common fruit trees. The fall 

 injury is due to the feeding of the immature larvae which live in small 

 silken tunnel-like shelters on the under leaf surfaces. 



The winter is passed by the partially grown larvae, usually in the 

 third but more rarely in the fourth stage, in tiny nests found at the tips 

 of the twigs and fruit spurs, hidden away under small pieces of bark, dead 

 leaves or bud scales. These hibernacula are constructed of fine, soft 

 whitish threads closely woven together to form a structure varying great- 

 ly in form and dimensions, yet closely adhering to the shape of the dor- 

 mant larvae. When the tips of the buds show green the tiny caterpillars 

 emerge, and feeding on the tender foliage, bore their way into the centre 

 of the bud in a manner closely resembling the common Budmoth (T. 

 ocellana). With the unfolding of the leaves the larvae leave the buds and 

 feed upon the new foliage, rolling and tying down the edges of the leaves 

 so as to form a tight shelter within which they feed and rest. Here they 

 remain until mature, usually in the last two weeks of June, when they 

 transform, right in their nests, to brown pupae from which the oblique 

 banded, light cinnamon-brown colored moths emerge in two weeks or 

 thereabouts, depending on the season. Mating now takes place and 

 the eggs are laid, often in less than a week after the female emerges, in 

 flat, greenish patches on the upper sides of the leaves. In ten days or two 

 weeks the young hatch, the regularity of their emergence being truly 

 marvelous. In one case noted, 90 per cent of the larvae, from an egg mass 

 of over 150 eggs, hatched in less than ten minutes. They quickly crawl, 

 or drop by means of silken threads to other leaves, where they wander 

 about for a few hours, ultimately settling on the under surface, and there 

 spin silken shelters under which they feed. A peculiar thing is that the 

 larvae, when under these coverings, in almost all cases lie with their dor- 

 sal surface towards the leaf and their ventral next to the web. This posi- 

 tion is maintained even when actually feeding — the larvae bending their 

 heads back until the mandibles come in contact with the leaf surface. Af- 

 ter moulting two or three times, varying with the individual, the cater- 

 pillars enter their winter quarters and by the end of August few are to 



