The work of the second brood varies more than that of the first. It may be 

 more severe or less severe, depending on how much the hatching is suppressed 

 and how freely the worms die of disease. If the hatching begins while the 

 \^ines are in flower, the small worms may work mostly in the blossoms, espe' 

 cially in the ovaries which they excavate to form tiny cups, and web the foli' 

 age only in their later stages. Usually they go to the tips when they hatch 

 and sew the leaves together, but this tip-webbing is more gradual than that 

 of the first brood. They usually web together several uprights at last and 

 may make nests even larger than those of the first brood. V/hether they web 

 much or not, they reduce the crop in proportion to the amount of infestation 

 by scoring the berries or working in them somewhat as the fruit worm does. 

 Sometimes they work almost exclusively in the berries. This brood may greatly 

 reduce the crop possibilities for the next year, for the tips of the injured uprights 

 usually fail to form normal fruit buds. Many of the chewed leaves soon drop 

 and the vines recover somewhat in the fall, mainly by putting out some tip 

 growth, but the uprights are often rather bare. 



Description and Seasonal History 



THE EGG 



This pest winters as a partly developed worm embryo in the egg, some of the 

 eggs having been laid by second'brood moths and some by first-brood moths, the 

 hatching of the latter having been suppressed. The eggs (figs. 4 and 5) are very 

 flat, disklike, light yellow, and about a thirty-second of an inch in longest diameter. 

 They are laid singly, nearly always on the backs of the leaves of the new growth. 

 Often several are placed on one leaf. The leaves of delicate uprights deep among 

 the vines generally have more than their share. 



Most of the eggs on the leaves in late fall often vanish while under the 

 winter flood, and they evidently perish when they disappear in this way, for 

 the infestation always is reduced the next spring when this happens. Usually, 

 howevef, most of the eggs stick to the leaves until spring and hatch. If an 

 infested bog is left unflooded for the winter and the vines are winterkilled, 

 the dead leaves drop m the spring and the fireworm eggs on them usually dry 

 up and fail to hatch. 



Hatching normally begins about the middle of May, but sometimes starts the first 

 week in May, and occasionally is delayed until the first of June, even on bogs 

 drained of the winter flowage early in April. The hatching period often lasts but 

 three weeks on thinly vined bogs if the weather is warm, but it may continue six 

 weeks among rank vines in cool weather. 



The black head of the worm may be seen through the shell for a day or two 

 before hatching occurs. When the worm emerges, the eggshell is left as a 

 thin shiny whitish scale on the leaf. 



The first brood of moths lay their eggs in late June and July. Many of 

 these eggs do not hatch till the next spring. Because of this, the hatching 

 period of the second brood of worms on any given bog often lasts little more 

 than a week. If the winter water is held till late May, the deferment of the 

 hatching of this brood is sometimes nearly complete. 



THE WORM 



The worm (fig. 6) is greenish or pale yellowish, with a shining black head 

 and neck, and is about a third of an inch long when full-grown. First-brood 

 worms generally take two and a half weeks to mature, but those of the second 

 brood mature in about twelve days. The second brood sometimes works till 

 well into August, even on bogs bared of the winter water in April. 



[7] 



