366 The Spraying of Plants. 



INSECT ENEMIES. 



Leaf-roller (Phoxopleris comptana, Frol.). Description. The 

 adult insect is a small, brown moth measuring about half an 

 inch across the wings. It appears in early spring and lays its 

 eggs upon the leaves of the strawberry, although the raspberry 

 and blackberry are rarely affected. The lame are greenish 

 brown, and when full grown, nearly half an inch in length, but 

 rather slender. They mature in June after having spun a web 

 which causes the familiar rolling upward of the leaflets. The 

 soft tissue of the leaf is eaten, and what remains turns reddish 

 brown, giving the plant a burned appearance. There are two 

 broods in the North, the winter being passed in the pupal stage. 



Treatment. Spray the plants during August, when the second 

 brood of larvae appears, with an insecticide such as Paris green 

 or London purple. Two applications may be required. Or the 

 foliage may be cut and burned, for the first brood pupates in 

 the rolled leaf, and in this manner it may be practically exter- 

 minated. 



Sawfly; Slug (Empliytus maculatus, Norton). Description. 

 " The four-winged fly appears in spring, and deposits its eggs 

 within the tissues of the leaf or stem. The larvae hatch in a 

 short time and feed upon the leaf, gnawing small, circular 

 holes at first like those eaten out of currant and gooseberry 

 leaves by young currant-worms. They develop in five or six 

 weeks into pale green worms about three-fourths of an inch 

 long. The larvae now go slightly beneath the surface, where 

 they form cocoons within which they change to the pupa state, 

 and later emerge as flies. In the southern states there are two 

 broods each season, while at the North there appears to be but 



one. 



Treatment. Burn the foliage as soon as the crop is harvested, 

 or spray with hellebore or Paris green before there is danger of 

 poisoning the fruit. Plants which are not bearing may be 

 sprayed with an arsenite when the worms first appear, and 

 again later if necessary. 



Tarnished Plant-bug (Lygus pratensis, Linn.). Description. 

 This bug is about one-fourth of an inch in length. It is very 

 variable in color, some being dark yellow, and others nearly 



* Weed, " Insects and Insecticides," 1891, 92. 



