REPORT OF A. S. PACKARD, JR. 



INSECTS AFFECTING THE CRANBERRY, WITH REMARKS 

 ON OTHER INJURIOUS INSECTS. 



By A. S. Packard, Jr. 



The culture of cranberries is rapidly becoming one of some impor- 

 tance in tbe West, particularly in Wisconsin. There the principal in- 

 sects, as I have been informed by Mr. F. W. Case, secretary of the Wis- 

 consin State Horticultural Society, are the fire-worm and fruit-worm, 

 but we do not know whether these insects are the same as those found 

 to be injurious to the cranberry in the East or not. I have attempted 

 to bring together all that is known regarding the insects injurious to the 

 cranberry, taken from my "Injurious Insects New and Little Known-' 

 (Mass. Agricultural Report for 1870), my "Guide to the Study of In- 

 sects," and from unpublished notes. I have been indebted for much 

 valuable information to W. 0. Fish, formerly of Sandwich, Muss., and 

 to Mr. F. G. Sanborn. No accounts of cranberry-insects are to be found, 

 so far as I am aware, in the works of any of our entomologists. 



INSECTS AFFECTING THE LEAVES. 



The Cranberry Span- worm (Cidaria, sp.). — The largestworm which 

 is destructive to the leaves is a span-worm or inch- worm {Cidaria, species 

 unknown). It was first made known by W. C. Fish, who states that it 

 strij)ped the plants in Harwich, Mass., in August. On one bog "they 

 destroyed nearly two acres of cranberry-vines, eating off all the green 

 lenves, the bog being as black in spots as though a fire had been over 

 it." I have found that this caterpillar is also destructive in Essex 

 County, Massachusetts. These worms are about the size of and have 

 the same general appearance as a canker-worm. They are dull reddish- 

 brown, simulating the color of the main stem of the plant. The owner 

 of the bog flowed it with water so that it was completely covered, and 

 the worms were killed. This is a rapid and effectual way of exterminat- 

 ing all insects affecting cranberry-plants. 



A specimen examined August 26 was of the size of the canker-worm. 

 The head is rather deeply indented above, no wider than the thorax; anal 

 plate long, acute, projecting over the end of the abdomen. Tbe body is 

 dull reddish-brown, simulating the color of the cranberry-twigs ; lineated 

 finely and dotted with dark brown. Head speckled with brown, with a 

 conspicuous transverse band across the vertex, with two rows of pale 

 irregular spots across the front; just above the spiracles a broad dusky 

 band, above which are lighter and darker fine thread-lines ; beneath 

 paler, with a ventral clear line, edged with dark. The tip of the abdo- 

 men ends in two minute acute tubercles tinged with reddish, and end- 

 ing in a spiuule, both situated under the anal plate, and concealed by it 

 when the body is looked at from above. Length, 0.80 inch (20™™). 



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