Cranberry Blossom Worm -^ 



This is a minor cranberry pest in Massachusetts but more important in New 

 Jersey. It is not known to harm bogs elsewhere. It often destroys the crop promise 

 entirely on a small area here and there on the Cape. It is confined to bogs not 

 reflooded regularly in late May or June or after picking. 



Distribution and Food Plants 

 This insect ranges through the Northeastern States from Maine to Illinois. 

 It feeds on blueberry and is said to attack leather leaf also. 



Character of Injury 

 The young worms first nibble the leaves, especially at the margin, or bore 

 into the buds and so spoil them for fruit production. As they grow, they nip 

 oiF the buds and flowers, dropping them to the ground. They rarely cut off 

 the leaves much, differing in this from the spotted cutworm and the armyworm. 

 They work very little in the daytime after they are half grown. Each worm 

 that matures destroys fully one hundred cranberry blossoms. 



Description and Seasonal History 



THE EGG 



Most of the eggs are laid in October. They are pale yellow at first but soon 

 turn dingy brown. They are fastened singly to fallen leaves (fig. 25) or pieces 

 of dead vine littering the bog floor. They pass the winter, the bog flowage 

 not harming them even when held fairly late. They usually begin to hatch some- 

 what after the middle of May on bogs drained in April, and hatch mostly in 

 late May and early June where the winter flood has been held till after mid-May. 



CRANBERRY BLOSSOM WORM 

 Fig. 25. Eggs on fallen leaves. 



THE WORM 



The worms in their early growth are usually considerably green on the 

 front half or so of the back. After they pass their first stages (Plate Two, 

 figs. 4a and 4b), they are reddish brown, with the head hght mottled brown 

 and with a whitish stripe along each side of the smooth and well-rounded body. 

 They mature early in July on bogs bared of the winter flood early. They then 

 become pale brown, often look somewhat bloated and act torpid and are nearly 

 an inch and a half long (Plate Two, figs. 3a and 3b). They soon enter the 

 ground or deep trash to remain dormant two to four weeks before pupating. 



THE PUPA 



Pupation normally occurs in late July and early August, usually in a cell 

 slightly below the surface of the ground. The pupa is brown and about 

 five-eighths of an inch long. It is enclosed in a loose and indefinite cocoon 

 of silk and sand. The moths emerge during September and are active till late 

 November. Pupation may take place in August or early September and the moths 

 emerge in late September and early October on bogs drained of the winter water 

 late. 



25 Epiglaea apiata (Gr.). Some growers call it the "bud worm. 



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