AX INJURIOUS CADDICE FLY. 



F. L. Harvey. 



Family Limnephilidse ; Genus Limnephilus ; Sp. 



In the latter part of June, 1898, we. received some caddice fly 

 larvae, their cases and their work from 'Mr. William Miller, man- 

 ager of the ]\It. Desert Nurseries, Bar Harbor, ]\Iaine. ]\Ir. ]\Iil- 

 ler stated regarding them : "That they have practically eaten up 

 our hardy water lilies. I send you portions of the stem and 

 leaf, illustrations of their work. As soon as we discovered what 

 was destroying them, we took steps to eradicate them, and also 

 removed all of the decayed and badly damaged foliage which 

 remained. Our hardy aquatic pond will contain, perhaps, 

 300-350 square feet. The first three days one man gathered 

 each day, about 3 gallons of the case v\-orms. In another week 

 or ten days, there would not have been a particle of leaf or stem 

 in the pond. Some of the kinds are completeh- killed out and 

 two-thirds of the pond is bare that was practically full last 

 year. Since we have been keeping them down by hand picking, 

 those that were strong enough and not destroyed before the 

 trouble was discovered, have made a rapid and wonderful 

 growth. Of course, in a large or deep pond, hand picking would 

 be out of the question. Having control of the water level, we 

 lowered it so as to reach them. The larvse crawled up the stems 

 of the lilies literally covering them. The stems were badly 

 eaten, often nearly gone, also the under sides and margins of the 

 leaves were attacked. I should like to know what they are ? Is 

 there anything that can be done to destroy them besides hand 

 picking? Any information you can give in regard to destroy- 

 ing them would be gladly received, and I should like to know if 

 they have been before reported as giving much trouble." 



The injury being new to us, we wrote Dr. L. O. Howard of 

 the Division of Entomolog}% United States Department of Agri- 



