ENTOMOLOGY 135 



probably met with in groves more than any other species. At times 

 the insect occurs in such numbers as to defoliate entire trees, check- 

 ing their growth and considerably reducing the crop of nuts. In 

 the future this insect is likely to cause increasing damage as the 

 acreage in pecans increases. 



Damage by the pecan cigar case-bearer occurs during the early 

 spring, principally to budded trees, and is due to the feeding of the 

 Iarva3 on the tender buds and unfolding leaves. Where this insect 

 is very abundant it causes injury in two ways. If the buds are 

 backward in opening, the larvae leave the twigs where they have 

 hibernated, and crawling to the swelling buds attack them and eat 

 out the contents, so that the life is destroyed, and before the tree 

 can put out its foliage the dormant buds must . develop. On the 

 other hand, if the trees develop their foliage before the larvae leave 

 hibernation in injurious numbers, the leaves are riddled by the 

 larvae as they come from the twigs and the wind soon whips them 

 to pieces. The adult is a delicate little moth, ochreous in color with 

 a wing expanse of about 1-3 of an inch. 



The larva is about 1-5 inch in length, brown in color. Tho 

 moths emerge from the pupae during May and June, and at that 

 time may be found among the pecan trees. 



The larvae upon hatching from the eggs in July, mine the 

 leaves of the host plant, and after feeding there for some time cut 

 out the two skins of the mine and construct the cases within which 

 they live during the fall and winter. After the cases are made the 

 larvae feed upon the leaves by eating through the lower epidermis 

 and tunneling out the interior of the leaf in all directions until the 

 mine is so large that to mine farther the larvae would have to leave 

 their cases. Under such conditions they move and begin a new 

 mine, so that the leaves become full of irregular rectangular patches 

 of brown with a small round hole in the center on the underside. 

 In feeding, the larvae carry the cases nearly perpendicular to the leaf 

 surface. 



Where this insect becomes abundant enough to be injurious it 

 can with little doubt be controlled by spraying the trees with arse- 

 nate of lead (at the rate of 3 pounds to 50 gallons of water) when 

 the buds are swelling in March in central Florida and in similar 

 climates. When the larvse attack the foliage, this should be simi- 

 larly sprayed. Lime-sulphur mixture applied during the dormant 

 season would undoubtedly give good results. (U. S. D. A., B. E. 

 Bui. 64, Part X.) 



The Pecan Bud-Moth. In some orchards the depredations of 

 this insect, combined with the damage inflicted by the case-worm, 

 cuts off one-half the yield of nuts. The moth is about % of an inch 

 in wing expanse; color grey. The pupa is light-brown in color, Cl- 

 inch long and is encased in a tube of dead leaves lined with silk. 

 The larva is slightly more than %-inch long, light yellowish green. 

 The minute eggs are deposited on the under side of the loaf. Upon 

 hatching the young caterpillars at once commence feeding on the 

 outer skin of the leaflets, on the under side. The larva so< 



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