APRICOTS THE APRICOT MOTH. 



89 



usually feed on the foliage of fruit trees, especially the apricot and pear. They appear 

 during May and June, and are to f inch long, yellowish-green with brownish head, 

 and a few hairs scattered over the body. It is a very active creature, wriggling about 

 in varied contortions when disturbed, crawling backwards or forwards with equal 

 facility, and lets itself down by a fine thread from its mouth. It ties two or more 

 leaves together by their extremities, causing them to curl, but is sometimes content 

 with a single leaf, in which it encases itself. If the first-seen rolled-up leaves are 

 pinched, the caterpillar within each roll is destroyed, but other rolled-up leaves appear 



Fig. 34. APRICOT MOTH (TORTRIX AXGUSTIORAXA). 



References: 1 , larva, natural size ; la, larva, enlarged ; 2, pupa, magnified : line on side, natural length ; 3, moth 

 enlarged : lines below, natural length of body, and expanse of wings. 



successionally, indicating that the hatching of the eggs continues for some weeks. 

 When full-grown the caterpillar fastens some remnants of leaves together, and passes 

 into a brown shining chrysalis, and from this the moth emerges in July and later. The 

 moth is inch long, and T V inch in expanse of fore-wings, which are ochreous in the 

 males, reddish-brown in the females, both having darker markings and spots irregularly 

 scattered over the outer half of the wings. The eggs are deposited upon twigs towards 

 the end of summer, some later than others, where they remain till hatched. The cater- 

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