THE LARCH CASE-BEARER 



(Coleophora laricella Hbn.) 

 Order, Lepidoptera Family, Elachistidae 



GLENN W. HERRI CK 



Many of our favorite ornamental trees are subject to the attacks of 

 various pests, which in some cases, notably on the elms, white birches, 

 and hickories, prove very serious. In fact, there is scarcely a shade 

 tree that has not one or more enemies with which to contend. The larch, 

 which is widely used as an ornamental tree and is much admired for its 

 soft, green, feathery foliage, has struggled for years with the larch saw- 

 fly and with the larch case-bearer. Although these two pests were first 

 discovered in this country at about the same time, yet the case-bearer 

 has not attracted much attention until within the last ten years. For 

 several seasons the larches used for ornamental purposes on the campus 

 of Cornell University have been rather seriously injured by the small 

 larvae of this case-bearer. Opportunity has thus been offered to observe 

 the habits, injuries, and life history of this interesting insect during the 

 past two years. The writer was fortunate in finding an apparently 

 satisfactory method of controlling this pest on trees used for ornamental 

 purposes, but the method would not be practicable for trees in a forest. 



HISTORY OF THE LARCH CASE-BEARER, AND INJURIES CAUSED BY THE INSECT 



The larch case-bearer is a European insect and has been known in 

 Europe for many years, it having been originally described in 1827 by 

 the German worker, Hiibner. In Europe, especially in Germany, it is a 

 serious pest to the forest larches and the Germans have given it con- 

 siderable attention. The insect found its way to England and Scotland 

 when the larch was introduced into Great Britain. Later it reached 

 America. 



Doctor Hagen was the first person to definitely record the presence 

 of the insect in this country. He found it on twigs sent to him from the 

 private grounds of Henry Watson in Northampton, Mass., in 1886. It 

 was found on specimens of the European larch (Larix europed) that had 

 been planted along an avenue. These trees were thirty years old and had 

 never been affected before, so far as had been noted. The pest had evi- 

 dently not been introduced with the trees, but had come in later from 



NOTE. D. E. Fink, student assistant, gave valuable aid by his observations in the field during the 

 summer of 1910. 



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