204 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION. 



appear from about the first to the twenty-fifth of July. 



The moths are most active during the night, remaining quiet 

 during the day on the bark of the tree, which they closely mimic. 

 They are also found to some extent during the day in the foliage 

 The cage erected in Missoula in the spring of 1902 for 

 the purpose of facilitating the study of the habits of the 

 codling moth, has afforded us also an opportunity for the close study 

 of the bud moth. The bud moth was very abundant in this cage in 

 1903 and destroyed practically all the fruit buds, interfering seriously 

 with our investigations of the codling moth. When disturbed or 

 frightened the moths often flew directly away from the tree and com- 

 ing in contact with wire netting clung quietly to it for a few mo- 

 ments. In a few moments, however, they flew back to the tree. It 

 is plain that they did not feel safe on the netting and they would not 

 have been safe were it not for the fact that no birds could reach them 

 on the inside of the cage. In flying at such times the moth pursues 

 an irregular zig-zag course and comes immediately at rest on light- 

 ing. 



It is worthy of special notice that there is a close resemblance be- 

 tween adults of the bud moth and of the codling moth. An experi- 

 enced person need have no difficulty in distinguishing between the 

 two if he has before him fresh specimens, but when the scales of the 

 wings are rubbed off as they often are in specimens captured in the 

 orchard, separating the two at sight is not so easily done. When 

 once placed on his guard, however, a trained observer is not liable 

 to make a mistake. On the other hand there are many less important 

 small moths in the orchard which the untrained observer or the per- 

 son who has paid little attention to insect life may mistake for both 

 of these orchard pests. 



In a few days after emerging the moth begins to deposit eggs. We 

 had no difficulty in finding quantities of them in the cage at Missoula 

 and they were invariably on the smooth upper surface of the leaves. 

 Other writers have stated that the eggs are laid singly or in clusters 

 and on page 61 of Prof. Slingerland's bulletin on this insect (No. 107, 

 Corn. Univ. Agric. Exp. Sta. 1896), is given a figure of a group of 

 these eggs numbering about six, but our observation shows plainly 

 that in Montana the eggs are laid singly. We have never found 



