130 MAINE STATE COLLEGE 



shields being black. The egg stage lasts from eight to eleven 

 days. 



When the young larva hatches it does not eat the shell of its 

 egg, but goes on to the tenderest leaves and almost immediately 

 begins spinning a micioscopic layer of silk, under which it eats 

 the cuter layer or epidermis of the leaf. The larva is then about 

 three millimeters in length, of a creamy white color, with head, 

 thoracic and anal shields blackish brown, and a few minute pale 

 hairs on the body ; the head is very large for the rest of the body. 

 In a. week the larva is nearly four millimeters long, light yellow- 

 ish biown, with the head, thoracic and anal shields dark brown, 

 and it eats minute holes through the leaf, its silken web now 

 being visible to the naked eye. The larva gradually becomes a 

 trifle more brownish, increases in size and enlarges its web 

 along the side of the midrib. 



Late in the fall the silken web is quite heavy and thick, and 

 the larva deposits its excrements in little black pellets in the form 

 of a tube, under the web, within which it hibernates during the 

 winter. Not unfrequently two leaves are fastened together by 

 the silk of the web, and sometimes a leaf is secured to a branch 

 of the tree in the same manner. 



About the first of May the larva measures seven millimeters 

 when resting, and eight when in motion. It is cylindrical in 

 form, with the htad dark brown and of medium size. The body 

 is dark yellowish brown, and the head, thoracic and anal shields 

 very dark, polished brown. There are ten lighter brown pro- 

 tuberances on each segment, from each of which arises one pale 

 hair. On the upper surface of the ninth segment is seen the 

 double undeveloped reproductive organ of a light brown color. 

 The legs are dark brown and the prolegs yellowish brown. About 

 the first of June the larva is from ten to twelve millimeters in 

 length, and the body has changed to a cinnamon rufous color. 

 From the middle to the last of June it curls or draws together 

 several leaves which it lines with silk, and in which it transforms 

 to a pupa." 



We show in Figure 7, Page 128, a cut of the larva and moth. 



Since the above was written Mr. Ingraham writes that though 

 nearly all the buds were infested and badly eaten, the flower buds 

 were not molested and he had a good crop of blackberries. This 

 may have been due to the well known law, that the last effort of 

 nature is to reproduce, and the diminished leaf surface may show 



