CIRCULAR No. 277 JUNE 1933 \\J 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

 WASHINGTON, D.C. 



THE ORIENTAL MQJH (CNIDOCAMPA FLAVESCENS 

 WALK.) AND ITS CONTROL 1 



By C. W. Collins, senior entomologist, Division of Forest Insects, Bureau of 



Entomology 



CONTENTS 



Page Page 



Introduction and spread 1 



Seasonal history 2 



Appearance and habits 2 



Food plants 4 



Natural enemies 5 



Control 7 



Summary 7 



INTRODUCTION AND SPREAD 



In February 1906 some peculiar cocoons were found on several 

 kinds of fruit trees in the Dorchester section of Boston, Mass. 

 These were later identified as belonging to a moth, Cnidocampa 

 flavescens (Walk.) (fig. 1), which up to that time was known to 

 occur only in the Orient, eastern Siberia, China, Chosen (Korea), 

 and Japan. Since 1906 the insect has attacked certain shade and 

 fruit trees in Boston and vicinity, and because it is apparently a 

 native of the Orient it has become known in its new home as the 

 oriental moth. 



Records indicate that the oriental moth may have become estab- 

 lished in Dorchester through importations of nursery stock from 

 Japan, as a nursery that handled such material was located near 

 the center of the area found infested in 1906. If the pest became 

 established in this way, it was in all probability before 1902, when 

 the State of Massachusetts began official inspection of nurseries. 

 It is said that before 1909 the insect was found on imported nursery 

 stock at other points in the United States, and there is at least one 

 record of its carriage from Dorchester to a point outside New Eng- 

 land. Since the enactment of the plant quarantine law by Congress 

 in 1912 there has been little possibility of its entry on plants im* 

 ported from foreign countries. The cocoon is the only form of the 

 oriental moth one would expect to find on such material, and, since 

 these cocoons are so conspicuous, it is improbable that they would 

 escape the attention of inspectors. 



Note.— This species, which confines its attack to the foliage of fruit and shade trees 

 is not to be confused with the more widely known oriental fruit moth {Grapholitha 

 molesta Busck), a pest which tunnels in the twigs of fruit trees and attacks the fruits. 



^i. 1 ^ 1 ?^ c i? cular is based on data obtained by several workers over a period of years at 

 the U.S. Bureau of Entomology Laboratory, Melrose Highlands. Mass., and the writer 

 MnnH eS w° acknowledge special assistance from T. H. Jones, J. V. Schaffner, Jr., C. El 

 Hood W. F Sellers and others. Distribution records were furnished by R. H. Allen of 

 the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture. * 



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