63 



Pre\ iou8 valiuiblo observations had been made, however, by Muhlig, of 

 Frankfort on the Main [nlde Kaltenbach's Die Ptlanzenfeinde aus der 

 Klasse der Insekten, p. 781). During the past three years this insect 

 has been very destructive in parts of England, notably in Sussex and 

 Kent; observations have also been made in Gloucestershire and Mid- 

 dlesex, and I have seen it working among the fruit trees in Cam- 

 bridgeshire in 1889 and in Huntingdonshire on more than one occasion. 

 Since the attention of the fruit growers has been called to this pest it 

 has been noticed ({uite frequently. The damage done by the larva is 

 very great, and as thei'e is no known remedy, it is very important to 

 try and prevent its importation and to destroy it by drastic^ measures 

 when it makes its appearance in an orchard. Miss Ormerod states'* 

 that "the attack appears to be ver}^ seldom noticed with us in con- 

 nection with apple injury." This is not the case; it has. been fre- 

 quently noticed ])y growers, but the observations have not been 

 recorded by them. 



This pest can easily be detected b}^ its workings and the symptoms 

 it produces; the red larvje, by tunneling into the buds and shoots (of all 

 classes), cause the former to die off soon after oyjcning and the shoots 

 to at iirst flag, then wither up and eventually turn l)r()wn and die. In 

 the first series of observations I made on this pest 1 found the termi- 

 nal shoots only affected,'' but, as pointed out to me by Mi-. Bear, of 

 Ilailsham, all shoots and buds suffer indiscriminately, and this has 

 been frequently observed during the past year. The dying off of the 

 3^oung shoots has frecpientl}^ l)oen attributed l)y growers to canker 

 {Nectrla dithshiui)^ which 1 have seen to produce very similar symp- 

 toms. But by breaking open the bud or dead shoot, the true cause is 

 soon seen by the presence of the small, red caterpillar or its brown 

 pupa near the apex of the ))ud or shoot. So far I have found this 

 insect onl}^ on dwarf trees, and reports sent me are all to the same 

 effect. Twelve-year-old trees are the oldest I have at pi-esent detected 

 these pests on. The fact that it is mainly on young stock has given 

 rise to the idea in England that it has been imported. This is not so, 

 for it not only occurs on the apple but is mentioned by Stainton^' as 

 being "not scarce- in Juno on white thorn." Herr Mulilig also says 

 that "the caterpillars live in the same way on the allied white thorn, 

 which they more especially infest in this neighborhood (Aix la Cha- 

 pelle)." Stainton seemed to doubt that the same species occurs on 

 the whitethorn and the apple, for ho says: "The dark variety appears 

 exclusively attached to the apple; it is possible it ukkv be a distinct 

 species." I have found during the past year that those bred from the 

 apple vary from the dark form mentioned l)y Stainton to the typical 



« Handbook of Orchard and Bush-Fruit Insects, p. 278. 1898. 

 & First Report on Economic Zoology, p. 68, 1903. 

 cLeiiidoptera Tineina, pp. 239 and 240. 



