THE FIRE WORM OF THE CBA1 11 







larvae, and even where the water bad scarcely receded, larvae evidently 

 two or three days old were found. CI led the fact that 



many of the larvae had hatched beneath the surface of the water, and 



had perished from want of air. A majority of the eggs found contained 

 fully developed but dead larva-, while in many cases the larva had 

 hatched and had lived for a day or two between the upper and lowei 

 surfaces of the leaf, before dying of lack of air. This first bro . - 

 rule, feeds for a day or two. or even longer, between the surfaces of the 

 leaf, then climbs to the tip and spins up the terminal leaves, but does 

 not usually eat off tin- tip so as to prevent further growth of the plant. 

 As the plant develops, the more tender leaves only are attacked, and 

 either the upper or under surface of the leaf is eaten. The larva never 

 eats entirely through the leaf, but to the center only, and often only a 

 few bites from different parts of the leaf. This first brood, as a rule, 

 does no great damage, even though very numerous, because the larva- 

 feed very largely on the old leaves, and become full-grown just about the 

 time that the vines begin to grow vigorously. About the 10th of June, 

 or before, the moths of this brood appear in force. While I had seen 

 that the larvae were very numerous, I was yet perfectly astonished at 

 the vast number of imagines I found flying in the dusk, for an hour and 

 a half before darkness set in. At other hours of the day they can 

 scarcely be induced to rise, but at this time they rise in swarms and fly 

 and hover very much after the fashion of the mosquito. 



The duration of the life of the moth appears to be about five or six 

 days, and their eggs may be found everywhere : scarcely a spray escapes) 

 and I have found as many as fourteen on a single spray and four on a 

 single leaf. By the loth of June the moths were most plentiful, but they 

 continued more or less abundantly throughout the season. About the 

 beginning of July the second brood of larvae appears, vastly more nu- 

 merous than the first: its power to do damage is very greatly enhanced, 

 and a difference in habit and more opportunity for destruction render 

 it ^r ill more dangerous. The cranberries blossom just about the time 

 when the second lot of larvae begin to hatch, and the young larva- im- 

 mediately attack the blossom or young berry, eating just enough to 

 destroy vitality. and then attacking another blossom. When the berries 

 and blossoms are either all destroyed, or the berries have fairly set. the 

 larva? no longer trouble them, but attack the leaves; and now they are 

 not content to spin up only the tips ami touch only what they eat. but. 

 instead, they web up all the leaves of a spray and take a bite here* 

 another there, and a third elsewhere, until they have destroyed every 

 leaf on the spray. Where the vines are thick, two or even three sprays 

 are spun together by a single larva which, by Dipping from all the 

 leaves, will destroy every one: the leaves lose vitality and turn brown 

 rapidly, and the bog looks brown and dry ■• as though a tire had swept 

 over it." Not leaves only, bur berries also, art- thus spun up and killed 

 in like manner. Nor does it take the larva- lone to do their work. Dr. 



