Insects Injurious to the Apple. 



93 



absence of spun together leaves and blossom and by the whole mass 

 dying back. Very similar effects are produced by canker. It has 

 also been reported attacking pears (1). It is a widespread pest, 

 having been recorded from Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucester- 

 shire, Cambridgeshire, Bournemouth, Sussex (Hailsham and Pole- 

 gate), Surrey and Kent (1), and in Ireland it is recorded by Carpenter 

 (6) from Donnybrook. 



LlFE-HlSTORY ASD HABITS. 



The moth of vinolentetta has a wing expanse of a little less than 



^ inch ; the front wings may be almost 



entirely black, or may be marked with 

 dark brosvn, and rusty brown ; the inner 

 margin of the fore wings is white to 

 beyond the middle, where an irregular 

 faint oblique white bar proceeds to the 

 tip of the wing, and two branches from 

 this intersect the black apical portion. 

 The hind wings are grey and densely 

 fringed ; the head black. Carpenter (6) 

 says the true Lavcrna atra, Haworth, is 

 characterised by a white head, and that 

 the black-headed form is B. vinolentella. 

 The specimens I have bred have had 

 both black and white heads. The white- 

 headed species is B. hellerella* The 

 moths appear in July and on into 

 August. The egg stage is unknown. 

 The larvre hatch in late summer and 

 feed first of all on the leaves, later they 

 bore into a bud, and still later under 

 the rind of a spur or shoot near a bud and remain there all the 

 winter. Their presence can be detected by a small round hole near 

 the bud and a brown blister-like patch where they have been 

 working. In spring they tunnel up the shoot, which if broken off 

 will be found to contain the Pith Moth caterpillar or pupa, usually 

 situated near the apex of a shoot. 



The larva is dull reddish-brown with a deep brown head and 



* The white-headed species common in Kent is B. hellerella, Dup. ; the 

 black-headed species is B. vinolentella, H. S. (rare in Kent and Worcester). 

 The species I originally referred the Pith Moth to Laverna atra, Stainton, 

 following Miss Ormerod is the hlack-headed B. putripenella of Zeller. 



[F.E. 



FIG. 81. PITH MOTH AND DAMAGED 



SPUR (B. hellerella). 



(Natural size.) 



