2 BULLETIN 1303, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Sanderson (10) reported serious injury to the pecan crop by A. caryae 

 in 1903, but it appears to the writer that the greater portion of the 

 damage, if not all, should have been accredited to the species of 

 Acrobasis discussed in this bulletin and to A. caryivorella. Dyar in 

 1908 (2), in a paper on the species of Acrobasis, includes this insect. 

 In 1914 the writer (3) made a brief mention of this species in an 

 article on the pecan leaf case-bearer (Acrobasis nebulella Riley), and in 

 Farmers' Bulletin 843 (4), appearing in 1917, it is treated at length. 

 The following year Turner (12) and Matz (8) gave general accounts 

 of the insect. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Hulst (7), in his original description of Acrobasis liebesceUa, gave 

 New Jersey and Texas as its habitat; Dyar (1) listed it from New 

 Jersey, Texas, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and in an article appearing in 

 1908 (2) mentioned Brown wood, Tex., and East River, Conn., as 

 localities in which it has been collected; and Turner (12) reported it 

 from Thomasville, Ga., and Cairo, Ga. In the United States National 

 Museum collection there are specimens from Brownwood, Tex.; 

 Goodman, Miss.; Bon Ami, La.; and Monticello, Fla. Besides the 

 localities mentioned, the records of the writer show that this species 

 also occurs at Waukeenah, Fla.; Baconton, Dewitt, Putney, and 

 Moultrie, Ga.; Mobile and Fowl River, Ala.; Ocean Springs and 

 Pecan, Miss.; Keithville, La.; and Marshall, Victoria, and Bend, 

 Tex. 



The pecan nut case-bearer, along with another nut-feeding species 

 of Acrobasis, A. caryivorella Rag., is rather generally distributed in 

 the pecan-growing sections of the Southwest, especially in Texas, 

 where it is reported annually as causing much damage. In the 

 Southeast, however, it has been recorded only from scattered locali- 

 ties in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. For 

 the last 9 or 10 years this insect has been causing considerable loss 

 to pecan growers in the vicinity of Monticello, Fla., and Thomasville, 

 Ga., and during 1922 it was reported for the first time as occurring 

 in injurious numbers in the large commercial orchards in the Albany, 

 Ga., district, which is at present rated as the most important section 

 for the production of cultivated pecan nuts. In 1923 and 1924 the 

 insect caused very heavy damage in the large orchards at Baconton, 

 Dewitt, Putney, and Albany, all in this district. This species 

 appears to be gradually extending its range of destructiveness, and 

 sooner or later it will probably prove a most formidable pest through- 

 out the greater portion of the pecan belt. 



FOOD PLANTS 



The only food plant on which this insect has been found by the 

 writer is the pecan (Hicoria pecan) , but it is to be supposed that it 

 subsists also on other species of the genus Hicoria. In literature oak 

 and pecan are given as food plants. Dyar (2) states that six speci- 

 mens from Brownwood, Tex., were bred at the insectary of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture from larvae on pecan mining into the 

 young buds. In his original description Hulst (7) has the follow- 

 ing statement : 



A specimen from New Jersey received by Prof. J. B. Smith, has on it a label 

 marked "on oak, Jersey pines, June." The pin is thrust through an oval close 

 cocoon which was undoubtedly made at or under the surface of the ground. 



