86 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



This moth appears on the wing in Massachusetts during 

 tho latter part of June, flying only in the night. Its wings 

 expand about half an inch and are of an ashy gray color, 

 with a broad lighter band across the middle of the fore 

 wings. This band is very much lighter in some specimens 

 than in others, Fig. 8. The sexes pair at this time, and the 

 females deposit their eggs singly near the ends 

 R *nrt *{jji;^ of the twigs, where the}^ remain during the 

 ^^WJlPiP' winter. These eggs hatch in the following 

 spring, about the time the buds swell and the 

 young leaves begin to appear. The young 

 larva burrows at once into the bud and en- 

 tirely destroys it, so that the onward growth of the twig is 

 prevented and the lateral buds which have escaped develop, 

 and thus an irregular, scraggy appearance is given to the 

 tree. 



These larvfe are especially fond of the flower buds, and 

 by destroying them, reduce the amount of fruit to a very 

 great extent. Not unfrequently they attack the buds of 

 newly-grafted scions, eating out the whole inside, so that 

 nothing is left but the outer covering of scales, and of 

 course the scion dies. The full grown larva is about three- 

 fourths of an inch long, cylindrical, naked and of a pale 

 brown color, with the head and top of the segment following 

 it of a jet black color. The surface of the body has minute 

 warts over it, from each of which arises a very fine short 

 hair. 



A few years ago I found a most curious parasite ( Phyto- 

 dictus vulgaris) attacking this caterpillar It was the young 

 of a hymnopterous insect, but, unlike all I had ever seen or 

 heard of before, which feed inside of the victim, this one 

 placed itself across the back of the neck of its prey, on the 

 outside and out of harm's way, and there grew fat at the 

 expense of its host, which died a lingering death. There are 

 no remedies, prol)ably, which will prove more satisfactory 

 than showering the trees with paris green when the buds first 

 begin to swell in the spring. 



