526 REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



the cranberry. It selects a bud not quite ready to open, and, clinging 

 to it, works its snout deep into the center of the bud. An egg is then 

 deposited in the hole made, when the beetle climbs to the stem and cuts 

 it off near where it joins the bud, which drops to the ground and there 

 decays, the eg% hatching, and the grub going through its transforma- 

 tions within. The larva is long and rather slender, cylindrical, the bodj'- 

 being of uniform thickness and curved ; the head is pale honey-yellow ; 

 the jaws tipped with black ; the segments of the body are very convex, 

 especially the prothoracic one ; it is white, with a few fine pale hairs, 

 and is .08 of an inch in lengtb." 



Mr. Fish, in an article outthis insect, published in the Yarmouth Reg- 

 ister, states, in addition to what we have said above, that the "egg, 

 which may be found within the bud, is pale honey-yellow, and is very 

 minute, measuring but .02 of an inch. The egg hatching, a dull whitish 

 grub will be found feeding within the bud. Having attained its growth 

 it changes to a pupa, and the perfect weevil eats its way out of the bud, 

 leaving a round hole in the side. These beetles may be found upon the 

 vines some time after the blossoms have disappeared. I have known 

 them to eat into a cranberry, making a round hole large enough to admit 

 the insect, but it is seldom that it does this. It also eats a little upon 

 the under leaves, but I have never known it to deposit its eggs within 

 the fruit, and I have never found the grub elsewhere than in the bud. I 

 have taken this beetle upon the fruit of the blackberry, in company with 

 other species of Antlionomus. This insect is not numerous anywhere, 

 but is more common at Eastham than at any other locality that I have 

 visited. As 1 have never seen one upon a bog that had been flowed 

 during winter, I think that it will never become troublesome on such 

 bogs at least. The larvse are killed by a minute chalcis-fly, as I discov- 

 ered the past season." 



ATTACKING THE FRUIT. 



The mature fruit is attacked late in the summer and in the autumn by 

 the "fruit- worm." This is a small caterpillar belonging to the same 

 family as the leaf-rollers. The first segment behind the head 

 is rather large and square, and the body is less hairy than in 

 the leaf-eating species. This worm is common in Massachu- 

 setts. It appears the first of August, and works through the 

 month. The first signs of its presence are seen in the pre- 

 mature reddening of the berries. Most of the worms attain 

 their full size before the first of September ; some may be 

 found in the winter. Mr. Fish states that when the cater- 

 pillar is fully grown it enters the earth and spins a cocoon 

 riG6-cran ^'^^^^"1 ^ f^^' i^ches of the surface. The cocoon is covered 

 berry Fruuwith graius of saud, and resembles a lump of earth. It re- 

 worm. mains in the ground all winter. An ichneumon preys upon 

 the caterpillar. Unfortunately we do not know the parent of the cater- 

 pillar. 



These are the only insects thus far known to prey upon the cranberry, 

 and occasionally one or several of them prove very destructive, locally. 

 In applying remedies, the most general and applicable is to flood the 

 cranberry pastures or bogs. The vines should be kept under water for 

 at least two or three days, as many insects will survive several days' im- 

 mersion. Fires at night will attract the moths, and numbers may be 

 destroyed in this way. Pans of coal-oil, and the use of coal-oil on the 

 puddles and standing water in which the vines grow, may be tried, 

 should it be found by previous experiments that the mineral oil does not 

 injure the vines. 



