143 



Feeding thus, the caterpillar lives and grows till late in 

 AugTist or into September, the parts of the leaves which have 

 been more or less skeletonized in this way turning brown and 

 becoming noticeable. Late in September or in October, how- 

 ever, the caterpillar seems to realize that the leaf is no place 

 on which to remain longer. It accordingly travels to a twig, 

 where it seeks for some angle or corner, and here it encloses 

 itself in a little web of silk in which to spend the winter. 



When the buds begin to open in the spring, the caterpillars, 

 now about half grown, leave their winter nests, being about 

 a quarter of an inch long and dark brown in color. They 

 pass to the leaf and flower buds, in which they feed, con- 

 suming the tender leaves or flower buds, and fastening them 

 together with threads of silk. A caterpillar rarely eats an 

 entire leaf or flower, but feeds for a time on one, then on 

 another, thus blighting much more than it actually consumes. 

 Sometimes it develops a burrowing habit, starting near the 

 base of the bud and working down in the pith of the twig, 

 causing the death of the entire tip of the shoot. 



Those caterpillars which do not appear in spring till a little 

 later select well-advanced leaves, the stems of which they 

 partially cut off so that they wilt. Such leaves are then rolled 

 up on one side and held by silk threads. In these the cater- 

 pillars live, and in feeding draw neighboring leaves close and 

 fasten them together, thus constructing small nests. 



The caterpillars feed for nearly tw.o months in the spring 

 before becoming full grown. When this condition has been 

 attained, pupation takes place, either in a partially rolled up 

 leaf, between two or three partially eaten leaves bound to- 

 gether with silk, or even on a leaf or twig, the cocoon in such 

 cases being covered with the woolly growth natural to the 

 smaller twigs or leaf stems. About ten days are spent in the 

 pupal stage, and then the moth appears, and eggs are laid for 

 another generation. 



The importance of the bud moth as a pest has not been gen- 

 erally realized by most apple growers, as the estimates of the 

 crop made are usually either from the abundance of the blos- 

 soms or from the newlv set fruit, and both of these come after 



