THE BUD MOTH 13 



Table 4. — Incubation of eggs of the bud moth. Wading ford, Conn., 1920 



Eggs laid 



Eggs 

 hatched 



Number 

 of eggs 



Days 



July 8... 



July 15 



29 



7 





16 



15* 



8 



9... 



17 



18 



8 



10... 



19 



19 



y 





20 



27 



10 



11... 



20 



8 



y 



12... 



21 



73 



9 





22 



9 



10 



13— 



22 



93 



9 



14... 



23 



124 



9 



15... 



24 



21 



9 





25 



29 



10 



Total eggs 



465 





Average incubation period.. 



9 



After hatching, the larva wanders about on the leaves for a short 

 period. During this time it may gnaw small pits in the leaf tissue 

 and spin a small amount of silk, but it soon settles in one spot and 

 constructs a shelter. This may be located anj^where on either sur- 

 face of the leaf, but the preference seems to be for the lower sur- 

 face next to one of the larger veins or the midrib, although often the 

 place chosen is where two leaves or a leaf and an apple touch. The 

 larva then constructs a weblike shelter over itself and the greater 

 part of its feeding grounds, often embedding in the silk more or less 

 frass, bits of leaf tissue, and leaf hairs. Later in the stage the shel- 

 ter takes the form of a tube open at both ends under a rooflike silken 

 web (PI. I, C). When newly hatched the larva is white, but after 

 a few days of feeding it becomes first a dirty yellowish white, and 

 then a light brown. As the larva grows, the amount of frass in- 

 cluded in the tubular portion of the nest increases until it becomes 

 dark brown or black, while the flat web above is light, loosely woven, 

 and includes only a few loose bits. of frass. If constructed next to a 

 straight midrib or vein, the tube is straight; in other cases it may 

 be more or less curved and irregular in shape. In feeding, the larva 

 eats through to the opposite epidermis, which becomes dry and brown. 

 As feeding continues and the larva increases in size, the shelter is 

 extended to cover most of the feeding ground, and the tubular nest 

 is lengthened. If the nest has been constructed between a leaf and 

 an apple, the larva frequently gnaws tiny pits through the skin of 

 the fruit. If feeding takes place between two leaves the leaves 

 are webbed together, and if next to an apple the leaf is fastened to it. 

 As feeding continues the area consumed is increased, but the larva 

 very rarely eats through the opposite epidermis of the leaf. All 

 larvae observed passed through at least three stages, and in rare cases 

 four, before entering hibernation. 



Several weeks before the coming of cold weather, as the larvae 

 approach the end of the third or rarely the fourth stage, they begin 

 to desert the leaves to seek quarters for the winter. The earliest date 

 on which larvae were found in hibernation in Connecticut in the 

 summer of 1920 was August 21; in 1921 it was August 25, and it 

 was six weeks or more before all larvae had left the leaves. In 1921 

 infested twigs were brought in at intervals and record made of the 

 number of larvae in hibernation and those still feeding. These ob- 



