ORCHARD INSECTS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 



55 



EYE-SPOTTED BUD MOTH 



The eye-spotted bud moth (Spilonota ocellana D. and S.) does 

 damage mainly to prunes and plums in the Pacific Northwest, but 

 may be found on all of the orchard fruits, as well as on some other 

 plants. It is a cool-climate insect, occurring chiefly in Oregon and 

 Washington west of the Cascade Mountains, in northern Idaho, and 

 in British Columbia. It is also a pest in the Eastern States, in Can- 

 ada, and in Europe, which was its original home. As indicated by 

 its name, it causes the most injury to the expanding buds, which are 

 devoured by the partly grown, hungry caterpiUars that have hiber- 

 nated on the trees. Crops are reduced by this bud-feeding habit, and 

 injury to the terminal shoots causes a bushy growth (fig. 65). 

 Later the insects eat the foliage, and a new 

 generation feeds more or less on the fruit, 

 often attaching a leaf to it and feeding in the 

 shelter thus formed. 



LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS 



The partly grown dark-brown larvae of the 

 bud moth pass the winter in small silken 

 nests, or hibernacula, attached to the twigs, 

 often in a crevice or crotch. These nests are 

 made of pieces of leaves or bark held together 

 with silk and are difficult to find on the trees. 

 The larvae leave them in April, or whenever 

 the buds begin to swell appreciably, and 

 burrow into the expanding buds and into the 

 terminal shoots, feeding from the inside. 

 Nests of silk are formed in the opening leaves, 

 and as the foliage surrounding them dries 

 the larvae go outside to eat leaves or blos- 

 soms, retiring to the nests when not feeding. 

 These webbed nests are often the first indica- 

 tion of the presence of the insects. The larvae 

 become full grown in June or early July, 

 when they are olive-brown with black heads 

 (fig. 66, A). They transform to pupae in the 

 nests of webbed leaves, and the moths appear about 3 weeks later. 

 These are somewhat smaller than codling moths, ashy gray, with 

 a cream-white band across both wings (fig. 66, B). The flattened 

 eggs, similar to those of the codling moth, are deposited on the 

 leaves and hatch in a week or so. The young larvae feed on the leaves, 

 protecting themselves with silk, and often eat small holes in the fruit. 

 In the fall these larvae build the hibernacula in which they spend the 

 winter. There is only one generation a year. 



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Figure 64.— Larva of pear thrips. 

 Fifty times natural size. 



CONTROL 



A spray of lead arsenate, 3 pounds to 100 gallons of water, should 

 be applied just as the tips of the leaves are pushing out of the buds. 

 If the infestation is serious, a second application may be made a week 

 or 10 days later, 



