Pip Fruits: Apples 



77 



stance to catch the insects. The bands are best placed 4 ft. from the 

 ground when possible, but at 2 ft. great numbers are caught. These bands 

 should be in working order by the first week in October, and as other 

 moths appear later than the Winter Moth (March Moth), should be kept 

 sticky until mid- April. Tanglefoot is the most lasting preparation for this 

 purpose, and may be put on old trees direct, as it is not a grease. Where 

 banding has not or cannot be carried out, the trees should be sprayed with 

 arsenate of lead, first soon after the buds have burst, and again after the 

 blossom has fallen (see "Insecticides", Vol. I, p. 211, et seq.}. Poultry 

 are good in an orchard, as they eat the larvae as they fall; so do pigs. 



[F. V. T.] 



Other Moths with Wingless Females. Several other moths have 

 wingless females, and may be pre- 

 vented in the same way. The more 

 important are: 1. The Mottled Umber 

 Moth (Hybernia defoliaria), which 

 is larger than the Winter Moth, and 

 the female quite wingless; its cater- 

 pillar, a looper, is chestnut brown 

 above, yellow at the sides, and is 

 common where Oaks surround fruit 

 plantations (tig. 341). 2. The Early 

 Moth (Hybernia rupicapraria) is 

 common on plums, the larva being 

 rusty coloured. 3. The March Moth 

 (Anisopteryx cescularia), which 

 appears in March and early April. The female is quite wingless, and has 

 a tuft of brown hairs at the tail; she lavs her eggs in irregular bands 



v OO O 



on the year's growth of wood, and the ova are covered with the caudal 

 hairs. The caterpillars are green, and are thinner than those of the Winter 

 Moth, and feed mainly on plum, but also on other fruit and Hawthorn. 

 Arsenical spray will destroy all these Iarva3, but prevention by grease- 

 banding is best. [F. v. T.] 



The Maggots of the Winter and 

 March Moths. These insects, especi- 

 ally the former, have been the cause of 

 much devastation in fruit plantations. 

 A year or two ago some fruit planta- 

 tions in Middlesex could be seen in 

 which the Apple trees in June were 

 as denuded of foliage by these insects 



o / 



as they were by nature in the winter. It is to catch the moths of these 

 insects that the grease bands, now such a familiar sight round the trees 

 in fruit plantations in the autumn and winter are put. The female moth, 

 being wingless, climbs up the trunk of the tree in autumn, after emerg- 

 ing from the chrysalis stage, in order to lay her eggs on the twigs, so 



341. Mottled Umber Moth (Hybernia defoliaria) 



1, Male moth. 2, Female moth. 3, Caterpillar 

 (natural size) 



1, Winged male. 



342. March Moth 



2, Wingless female. 

 of eggs. 



3, Band 



