THE APPLE-WORM MOTH. 485 



The apple-worm has been long known in Europe, and 

 its history lias been written by Rosel, Reaumur, Kollar, 

 Westwood,* and other European naturalists. A good 

 account of it, and of its transformations, by Joseph Tufts, 

 Esq., of Charlestown, Massachusetts, was published in the 

 year 1819, in the fifth volume of " The Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural Repository and Journal " ; and Mr. Joseph Bur- 

 relle, of Quincy, Massachusetts, has also made some remarks 

 on the same insect, in the eighteenth volume of " The New 

 England Farmer." f At various times, between the mid- 

 dle of June and the first of July, the apple-worm moths 

 may be found. They are sometimes seen in houses in the 

 evening, trying to get through the windows into the open 

 air, having been brought in with fruit while they were in 

 the caterpillar state. Their fore wings, when seen at a dis- 

 tance, have somewhat the appearance of brown watered 

 silk ; when closely examined, they will be found to be 

 crossed by numerous gray and brown lines, scalloped like 

 the plumage of a bird ; and near the hind angle there is a 

 large, oval, dark brown spot, the edges of which are of a 

 bright copper-color. The head and thorax are brown min- 

 gled with gray ; and the hind wings and abdomen are 

 lirdit yellowish brown, with the lustre of satin. Its wings 



O / 



expand three quarters of an inch. This insect is readily 

 distinguished from other moths by the large, oval brown 

 spot, edged with copper-color, on the hinder margin of 

 each of the fore wings. During the latter part of June 

 and the month of July, these fruit-moths fly about apple- 

 trees every evening, and lay their eggs on the young fruit. 

 They do not puncture the apples, but they drop their eggs, 

 one by one, in the eye or hollow at the blossom-end of the 

 fruit, where the skin is most tender. They seem also to 

 seek for early fruit rather than for the late kinds, which we 



* Gardener's Magazine, Vol. XIV. p. 234. 



t Page 398. See also some remarks on this insect in my " Discourse before the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in 1832," page 42. 



