LEAF-ROLLERS ON OKANGE. 



151 



FIG. 70. Laphygma friiflipercla: 

 a, moth, normal form ; b, wings 

 of variety fusca,- c, do. of variety 

 obscura natuial size. (After 

 Riley.) 



The caterpillars grow to the length of an inch and~a half. They are 

 very variable in color, the young being dark, sometimes nearly black, 

 and the adults of lighter color, varying from brown to pale green, 

 with fine mottlings of other colors. Several 

 broad stripes of dark and light brown, run- 

 ning from head to tail, render this caterpil- 

 lar conspicuous and easily recognized. 



The moth belongs to the numerous group 

 of Owlet Moths, called in the South "Candle 

 Flies." It has narrow front wings of gray 

 and brown, finely intermingled ; and the semi- 

 transparent hind wings of dull white, with 

 smoky margins. Spread of wings about one 

 and a quarter inches. 



The pupa is polished, mahogany-brown, 

 and is formed in a simple, unlined cell be- 

 neath the surface of the ground. The trans- 

 formations of this insect are completed in 

 one month. There are several broods, but 

 the worms are most numerous in August, and the moths in September. 



Orange groves which are kept clean will not be liable to injury from 

 the Grass -worm, which feeds naturally upon grass and succulent herbs. 

 Young groves are sometimes attacked when they are allowed to become 

 foul and only cultivated at long intervals. The amount of damage done 

 by this caterpillar is small, but it may, under special conditions, become 

 a serious pest. Clean culture will in such cases prove an all-suflicient 

 remedy. 



LEAF-ROLLERS. 



Slender, almost naked, worms, of small size, and usually yellowish- 

 green in color, which roll up leaves, or bind together tender bud-leaves, 

 to form a protecting tube, within which they lurk and feed, and in time 

 transform to pupae. 



Before the moth issues, the pupa is pushed partly out of the tubular 

 shield of leaves. Fig. 71 shows the pupa of Platynota rostrana pro- 

 truding from the side of a folded orange leaf. 



The adults are rather small moths, with pointed heads, and oblong, 

 somewhat heavy fore wings, which, when folded, form a roof-like ridge 

 over the body. 



The eggs are laid upon the surfaces of leaves, in elongate, oval 

 patches of transparent yellowish-green color. In these patches each 

 egg forms an excessively thin overlapping scale, and the whole mass of 

 fifty to eighty eggs is thus firmly knit together, and can be removed 

 from the leaf without separating. The thinness and cellular structure 

 of the egg-cluster give it a resemblance to certain low forms of vegeta- 

 ble life, and it might readily be mistaken for a mold or a lichen. 



