REPORT OP COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION 217 



THE GRAPE BERRY MOTH. 

 (Polychrosis viteana) 



By W. H. GOODWIN, 

 Assistant Entomologist, Wooster, Ohio. 



The Grape Berry Worm (Polychrosis viteana) has been very destructive 

 in certain localities of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, during the past 

 ten or eleven years. It has attracted considerable attention in some other 

 States, but has never done enough damage to be of any great economic inter- 

 est excepting in the States named. The berry worm is a native species which 

 seems to have almost abandoned its original food plant, the wild grape, and 

 has taken up with the cultivated varieties of grapes wherever they are grown. 

 In Ohio, the chief regions suffering from the depredations of this insect are 

 along the shores of Lake Erie and the outlying islands. It seems to have 

 been especially severe in its attack in the region of Cleveland and Sandusky, 

 and the islands near the Peninsula of Marblehead, but it is not confined to 

 this region by any means. From Dayton, Columbus, Springfield and a num- 

 ber of other points, its injuries have been reported. In the locality of 

 Wooster, this insect destroyed most of the grape crop, especially in grape 

 arbors and small vineyards in and around the city in some seasons. Frost 

 destroyed the grape crop several times so the infestation has almost disap- 

 peared some years. The injury done to the grape crop varies from a small 

 per cent of infested berries to 95 per cent of the crop, and many vary from 

 a slight infestation on one side of the vineyard to over 80 per cent infestation 

 on the other side of the vineyard. These points may not be more than one- 

 fourth of a mile apart. During 1908 and 1909, the berry worm almost dis- 

 appeared in the regions of Marblehead and the islands in that vicinity. It 

 was quite plentiful just east of Cleveland in 1908, but had almost disappeared 

 in 1909 and in 1910 it did not seriously damage the crop in this region. In 

 1912 and 1913 the injury east and west of Cleveland was very severe, and in 

 1914, although the crop was heavy, the injury was very severe. 



The grape berry worm was first recorded about fifty or sixty years ago 

 and being from a practically new country, was recorded as a new species. 

 A few years later, the authenticity of the species was doubted and in 1870 

 some specimens were sent to one of Europe's specialists who pronounced 

 them as identical with the European species, Eudemis botrana. 



Its species identity was not questioned again until Prof. M. V. Slinger- 

 land, in a report of his studies published in 1904, gave a record of its life 

 history and habits. He found that the life history of the American species 

 differed greatly from that of the European moth. These differences had been 

 previously recorded, yet in classifying this moth, the record of its different 

 habits had been entirely ignored. W. D. Keerfoot monographed this genus 

 of tortricids in 1904 and gave the distinguishing characters of the berry worm 

 moth and a number of closely related species, referring it back to the name 

 given by Clemens (Polychrosis viteana). 



