7 6 



Commercial Gardening 



and March Moths; (e) The Woolly Aphis or American Blight; (/) The Scab 

 Fungus. 



Winter Moth (Cheimatobia brumata). This moth, in its caterpillar 

 state (fig. 340), attacks the foliage and even fruit not only of apple, but also 

 of such other fruit as pear, plum, currant, gooseberry, nuts, and raspberry. 

 The Winter Moth is also found in hedgerows and in woods and forests, 

 on Oak, Elm, Birch, Hawthorn, and Hazel. It is widely distributed over 

 Britain, and does much harm. This insect belongs to a family known as 



Geometrinse, and the caterpillars 

 are often spoken of as Measurers, 

 Loopers, or Canker Worms. 



The male moth is winged, 

 the front pair being brownish 

 grey, with darker wavy trans- 

 verse lines, and the hind pair 

 uniform grey ; the wing expanse 

 is about 1^ in. The female is 

 almost wingless, the four organs 



C5 ' O 



of flight being reduced to mere 

 stumps, and thus the female is 

 unable to fly. 



This moth may appear any 

 Fig. 340. winter Moth (Cheiinatobia brumata) time between the first week in 



1, Male moth. 2, Female. 3, 4, Caterpillar (natural size). October and the SCCOnd Week in 



January. Both male and female 



come out of the ground. The males fly about in the orchards, gardens, 

 and hedgerows; the females crawl up the trees to deposit their eggs. One 

 female may lay 200 eggs. The eggs are at first green, but later become 

 brick-dust red; the shell has a delicate sculpturing over it, and is thick. 

 The females lay their ova on the wood or at the base of a bud, on a 

 pruned surface, or even on stakes and rags by which young trees are 

 supported, and also sometimes on the trunk. 



The eggs hatch in March, and the small, dark caterpillars at once feed 

 on the buds as they open. Later, they become green, with pale lines, and 

 can be told by having three pairs of jointed legs in front, and only one 

 pair of fleshy feet in the middle, and an anal pair. They mature in June, 

 and then reach over 1 in. in length. The food is not only the foliage, for 

 they also get into the blossom trusses, and spin them together and devour 

 the strigs (pedicels) and blossom. 



When mature they fall to the ground and enter it, then spin oval cases 

 of silk covered outside with earth, in which they change to dark-brown 

 pupae. These earthen cocoons are found from 1 to 3 in. deep in the 

 soil. 



PREVENTION AND TREATMENT. The female moths may be caught by 

 grease-banding. This is done by first tying a piece of grease-proof paper 

 around the stem of the tree, and then smearing it with some sticky sub- 



