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TypHa Insects: THEIR EcoLoGicaAL RELATIONSHIPS 485 
Archips obsoletana Walk. 
Archips obsoletana Walk. is a moth belonging to the family Tortricidae. 
This insect has been reported from the Atlantic states and from Illinois. 
The author has found it in Kansas and in New York. Slingerland 
(1901) suggested ‘‘ the obsolete banded strawberry leaf-roller”’ as a 
common name for the insect. Archips obsoletana Walk., although it 
lives on various host plants, prefers those which grow in moist situations, . 
and is here reported on Typha latifolza. ; 
Life history and habits 
The habits of this insect as a leaf-roller on strawberry have been studied 
rather carefully by Slingerland (1901). According to his report, there 
are three generations a year in New York. It is not known in what 
stage the insect passes the winter. 
Egg-laying. —The eggs have not been observed in nature. In the labora- 
tory, they were deposited in a large mass on the side of the glass cage. 
The larvae— The writer’s observations on the habits of the larvae of 
this species have been restricted to those specimens sound on Typha 
latifolia. The larvae and their work on cat-tail were first noticed on 
some cat-tail heads from Lawrencé, Kansas, sent to the author by 
Dr. H. B. Hungerford and received at Ithaca on July 17, 1916. A number 
of the heads showed the effects of the work of the larvae of Archips 
obsoletana. On August 12, 1916, larvae of this species were also found 
at work on the heads of cat-tail plants in the McLean Bogs. One pupa 
was also discovered at this time. 
The larva works on the immature heads of the cat-tail, feeding on the 
vender styles of the pistillate flowers and sometimes eating off the tops of 
the developing ovules (Plate XLVII, 69 and 72). The stigmas are not 
eaten; instead they are lined underneath with a thin, but closely woven, 
layer of silk. This silk layer, together with the stigmas on top, forms 
a protective covering over the larva. When this covering is torn loose, 
the larva quickly repairs it. 
In the laboratory, the larvae at times left the heads and fed on the 
leaves of the cat-tail; but they always provided themselves with a protected 
place, either by tying two leaves together or by spinning a silken tube 
between a leaf and the side of the glass cage. In this tube the larva 
“remained, never leaving it entirely but always keeping the tip of tke 
