50 maine agricultural experiment station. 



Bud Moth. 

 (Tmetocera ocellana.) 



This is probaly one of the worst pests to apple orchards in 

 Maine. It works in the unfolding flower and leaf buds of 

 orchard trees, often doing great damage to the crop, besides 

 attacking nursery stock and young trees. . 



The half grown, brown hibernating caterpillars usually 

 emerge from winter quarters about the time the buds begin 

 to expand, their first appearance depending on the advance of 

 the season, and ranging over two or three weeks. When they 

 are out early, they gnaw into the buds. If the buds are open 

 they crawl inside. They attack both flower and leaf buds, 

 fastening the parts together with silken threads forming a nest, 

 within which they feed upon the enclosed tender flower or leaf 

 parts. They do not confine their depredations to a single leaf 

 or flower in the bud, but increase the injury done by sampling 

 nearly all. They sometimes bore down the stems a few inches, 

 killing the terminal shoots. The bud attacked turns brown, 

 making the nest conspicuous. The caterpillars feed mostly at 

 night for 6 or 7 weeks and moult 3 times. When full grown 

 the caterpillar forms a tube out of leaves, which it lines with 

 thin, closely woven silk, and within it soon changes to the pupa. 

 In about 10 days the pupa works its way nearly out of the tube 

 by the hooks on its back. The skin splits open and the moth 

 appears. The moths are on the wing during the latter part of 

 June and the first of July. They fly mostly at night, resting 

 on the trees during the day time, when they may be easily recog- 

 nized by the white bands on the ash colored wings. The moth 

 has a wing expanse of 3-5 of an inch. They live 2 or 3 weeks, 

 during which time they mate and the eggs are laid. The eggs, 

 which resemble small fish scales, are laid singly or in clusters, 

 mostly at night, on the under side of the leaves. The eggs 

 hatch in 7 to 10 days. The young larvae feed upon the epidermis 

 of the leaf, forming a silken tube for protection. After the 

 fourth moult, which occurs the last of August or the first of 

 September, or before the leaves fall, they leave the silken tubes 

 and form a silken winter home (hibernaculum) on the smaller 

 twigs near the buds, in which they spend the winter. The 

 appearance of the hibernating larva in the spring completes the 

 cycle of life. 



