THE GRAPE-BERRY MOTH. 21 



of common thistle (Coquillett, 1883), berries of wild grapes (Bruner, 1895), grape 

 tendrils and blossoms, seed bunches of sumac, leaves' of magnolia, phylloxera lice and 

 their galls (Marlatt, 1896), and moths bred from flower heads of thorough wort or boneset 

 and Ambrosia trifida have been classed with the grape-berry moth in collections. 



In all of the rearings of allied moths made by Kearfott and Slinger- 

 land, viteana was not obtained from any plants other than the grape. 

 This is also true of the rearings made at North East, Pa., during the 

 investigations of grape insect pests which have been conducted there 

 from 1907 to 1911 by the Bureau of Entomology. It is therefore 

 reasonably safe to state that this insect confined its feeding and 

 reproduction to the blossom clusters and berries of the wild and the 

 cultivated grape. 



Mr. Kearfott prefaces his paper x with the following statement : 

 The following notes are from breeding records extending over the past four years, 

 which have convinced me that each of the species described, as well as a number of 

 others waiting for better material, completes its entire yearly cycle of two or three 

 broods on a single food-plant and also with little doubt each food-plant supports a 

 separate and distinct species. This does not seem unreasonable, for in Europe there 

 are twenty described species of the genus Polychrosis. 



OCCURRENCE OF THE GRAPE-BERRY MOTH IN DESTRUCTIVE 



NUMBERS. 



The earliest record of serious injury by the grape-berry moth in 

 America is from Mr. M. C. Head, of Hudson, Ohio, in 1869. He states 

 that during that season and for several seasons preceding this date 

 this insect had been very injurious to grapes in vineyards in the vicin- 

 ity of Hudson, Ohio. 2 



Walsh in 1869 states that several persons reported to him observa- 

 tions of its occurrence in injurious numbers in different parts of Mis- 

 souri and southern Illinois. Riley makes the statement that in 1868 

 it was common in vineyards in Missouri along the Pacific & Iron 

 Mountain Railroad, and that it was equally common around Alton, 

 111. He was also informed that it had ruined 50 per cent of the 

 grapes around Cleveland, Ohio, during the same season. 



In 1870 Townend Glover reported it as occurring in large numbers 

 on the fruit of grapevines in Maryland. In 1882 Saunders reported 

 a serious outbreak of the pest in Canada, in vineyards in the vicinity 

 of London, Ontario. In 1885 Dr. F. M. Goding reported it as being 

 very injurious in vineyards near Ancona, 111. Prof. F. M. Webster 

 reported it as destroying 50 per cent of the grape crop in the vicinity 

 of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1893. In this same year Prof. H. Osborii 

 reported it as being injurious in vineyards near Des Moines, Iowa. 

 In 1898 Prof. Webster again reported it as being very destructive in 

 the vicinity of Cleveland and Gypsum, Ohio. In 1903 and again 

 in 1905 Mr. A. F. Burgess found it very injurious in vineyards in the 



i Bui. 223, Cornell Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta., pp. 57-59. 2 Riley, Missouri Report, 1869. 



