ENEMIES OF THE APPLE. 237 



ilar black marks situated on the inner edge at the outer third of 

 the wing. When the wings are folded over the back, these 

 black marks, collectively, make a rudely triangular figure. 

 The outer third of the wing is also variously banded and mot- 

 tled with leaden blue and tawny brown scales. The fringe is 

 brown and leaden blue. The hind wings are dark ash brown. 

 Beneath, the fore wings are not mottled, but uniformly dark 

 ash brown, and a shade lighter than the upper surface of the 

 hind wings. It expands about .55 of an inch. 



It varies in the distribution of the black spots, and in the 

 degree of angularity of the outer edge of the basal dark portion 

 of the fore wings ; and in some specimens the middle of the 

 wing is concolorous with the other parts, and the peculiar lead- 

 en blue scales are scattered over the whole wing, with a black 

 patch on the inner third of the wing near the inner edge. In 

 some specimens there are more than four dots near the outer 

 edge of the wing, forming a transverse row. 



As these worms attack the fruit and leaf-buds, it is difficult to 

 pick them off by the hand without injuring the buds ; nor is it 

 easy to apply whale-oil soap or a weak solution of carbolic acid. 

 Both of these remedies, however, should be tried, especially 

 showering the terminal branches of the tree with soap-suds or a 

 very weak solution of carbolic acid. A faithful application, for 

 one season, of these and other remedies, will materially lessen 

 the numbers of this formidable pest. 



The Apple Micropteryx. — This minute moth has been very 

 abundant, mining the leaves of the apple in September and 

 October. It eats its way in the interior of the leaf between the 

 upper and under side, feeding upon the parenchyma. Its bur- 

 row is marked by a wavy broad dark line on the leaf, which 

 dilates at the end into a spatulate expansion, somewhat puffed 

 out, in which the larva rests when fully fed, and makes its exit 

 through a slit at the end, when it may often be seen hanging sus- 

 pended by a thread. The larva is a minute, deep green cater- 

 pillar; cylindrical, somewhat fl.attened, with the sutures between 

 the segments well marked ; the body is thickest in the middle 

 and is very soft. It is about one-tenth of an inch long. It may 

 be seen in abundance hanging from the leaves during Septem- 

 ber and early in October, when it matures, and in October spins 

 a peculiar flattened orbicular silken yellow cocoon about a tenth 



