50 Insect Pests. 



THE WINTER MOTH. 

 (Oheimatdbia brumata. Linn.) 



Of all fruit-tree pests this is one of the most harmful and wide- 

 spread, but fortunately, owing to its habits, we can not only keep 

 down its numbers, but can even exterminate it in our orchards by 

 well-tried methods. It is needless to caution growers to take with 

 care any such statements, as have been made, that washes will kill 

 the eggs of this moth. 



The Winter Moth takes its name from the fact that it appears 

 late in the year. It is also called the Evesham Moth, on account of 

 its having been noticed in numbers in that neighbourhood, but it 

 occurs no more so there than in any other part of Britain. 



The food plants are very varied ; most forest trees except conifers 

 are attacked, oaks often being defoliated by them. Of fruit, it is 

 found most on apple and plum, but it occurs also on pear, peach, 

 currants and gooseberries, and now and again on raspberries, walnut, 

 roses and other flowers. The caterpillars are known as " Loopers " 

 or " Measurers," on account of their means of progress, which is by 

 a series of loops ; the larva figured on page 53 is in an intermediate 

 position. The family which contains this pest is known as the 

 Geometridee. 



So great in numbers do these " Loopers " become that they often 

 quite defoliate the trees (Fig. 44), and later are known to attack the 

 fruit, eating holes in the sides (Figs. 39 and 40). When young they 

 also damage the blossoms and even buds. 



One of the worst attacks was in 1868 and 1869 in the apple and 

 pear orchards of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. In 1907 an 

 enormous amount of harm was done in parts of Kent and in a few 

 cases in Worcestershire. In the Sittingbourue and Faversham areas 

 in the former county the trees looked in summer as if it were winter. 

 Mr. Gardener of Ombersley complained loudly of the harm they 

 were doing to his plums, and found they were spreading below on to 

 the gooseberries. This habit has been recorded by Ormerod (2) from 

 Kidderminster and also from Gloucestershire, where they passed on 

 to currants beneath the plums. So widespread is the attack of this 

 pest that it is not necessary to refer to any further specific cases. 

 Carpenter (1) records the attack of this insect in Ireland in County 

 Fermanagh. 



Fortunately, what we already know of its life-history goes a long 



