100 INSECTS AFFECTING VEGETATION 



When full grown they bury themselves a short distance be- 

 neath the surface and change into rough, brown, rather stubby 

 pupae, from which the moths emerge a few days later. The second 

 brood of caterpillars matures early in August, and pupation begins 

 before August 9. Though worms will continue to be present in 

 numbers until after the middle of the month, the moths appear 

 at its end and in September. 



There seems to be no regularity in the appearance of these 

 insects. In some years they are not seen at all ; in others they may 

 be locally abundant, and only occasionally do they seem to occur 

 everywhere in great armies. Usually they start from some point 

 near the edge of the bog, spread out a little, and then move in an 

 almost direct line ahead. Sometimes the beginning is nearer the 

 center, and the eating may be in all directions from a given point 

 where some groups of eggs were laid. It is the first brood which, 

 as a rule, starts near the edges. The second brood starts from in- 

 side centers, and when these are numerous the boundaries of the 

 individual broods become lost, and, the masses 'uniting, an army 

 is formed which, as it advances, plays havoc with the crop. Not 

 a green thing is left on the vines, and in a few days acres may 

 change from green to brown ; from a smiling promise of a full crop 

 to the barrenness of desolation. 



Being an open feeder upon the foliage, this span worm is 

 susceptible to arsenical poisoning and unless the bogs can be 

 rapidly reflowed and as rapidly laid dry, spraying or dusting are 

 the only alternatives. Where the worms are noticed when they 

 first start, spraying the foliage just ahead of them may answer all 

 purposes, and indeed this poisoning of their line of advance should 

 always be done before treating the parts already infested. Either 

 Paris green at the rate of 1 pound in about 160 gallons of water, 

 may be used, or the arsenate of lead or a dry powder may be applied, 

 as for the blackheads and yellowheads. 



The Cranberry Girdler. This species more commonly known 

 as the girdle worm, is found abundantly in all the cranberry dis- 

 tricts, but it is seriously injurious in Massachusetts only. The 

 larvae, which are slender, grayish caterpillars, with shining, light 

 chestnut-brown heads, and yellowish thoracic shields, pass the 

 winter ifi a torpid condition within a silken tube or cocoon, which 

 resists the entrance of water. In New Jersey the adults are found 

 in May, on 'and around the edges of the bogs; in Massachusetts 

 they do not fly until July, and there is evidence that the worms 

 do some feeding in spring before they actually change to the pupal 

 stage. This change to the pupa takes place in the tube or cocoon 

 made in the previous fall, and on Cape Cod at the latter part of 

 May or in early June. The adult is a pretty little creature, with 

 fore wings expanding about three-fifths of an inch, and is one of 

 the long-snouted moths, the palpi or mouth feelers projecting well 

 beyond the head. The fore wings are rather narrow, very pale 

 straw-yellow in color, with smoky lines in the interspaces between 

 the veins and narrow silvery cross bands at the outer part, near the 



