MISCELLANEOUS GARDEN INSECTS 409 



found on the affected plants. It is about three-quarters inch 

 long, and will be readily recognized from Fig. 295. The beetles 

 hibernate over winter and feed on dock, in the stalks of which the 

 eggs are laid in May. Although eggs are laid in rhubarb, they 

 fail to hatch or the young larvae die. The grubs become full 

 grown by midsummer and the beetles emerge in late summer 

 and feed a little before entering hibernation. 



Control. As the beetles are sluggish and readily found, 

 they may be easily destroyed by handpicking. Dock plants 

 near the rhubarb patch should be pulled amd destroyed in early 

 summer after the beetles have finished laying their eggs. 



The Celery or Greenhouse Leaf-tyer * 



This little caterpillar has become known as the celery leaf- 

 tyer, for although it damages cabbage, beets, tobacco, lettuce, 

 cauliflower, parsley, cucumber, sweet pea, and strawberry, it 

 has been specially injurious to celery. It is equally well known 

 as the greenhouse leaf-tyer, for it is one of the worst insect enemies 

 of the florist, attacking violet, rose, chrysanthemum, carnation, 

 and other greenhouse plants. On celery the larvae both bore 

 in the stems and web up the foliage upon which they feed upon 

 the surface, skeletonizing the leaves. The usual method of 

 feeding, to which is due the common name, is to fasten together 

 two contiguous leaves, to curl over the edge of a single leaf, or 

 to spin a thin silken web within which to feed. 



The moth resembles that of the garden webworm, having a 

 wing expanse of about three-quarters of an inch, the fore-wings 

 being light clay-brown, suffused with reddish or ochreous brown 

 and marked with blackish cross-lines as shown in the illustration, 

 and the hind-wings are gray with darker margins. The full- 

 grown larva is about three-quarters inch long and of a 

 translucent greenish-white color. Down the middle of the back 



* Phlyctoenia rubigalis Guen. Family Pyralidoe. See F. H. Chittenden, 

 Bulletin 27, n. s., Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr.; M. V. Slingerland, Bulletin 

 190, Cornell Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta., p. 159. 



