77 



take on their protective, reddish, winter coloration, and in October 

 go into hibernation. Some of these hibernating adults doubtless live 

 from one August until the next, or for nearly a year. There is but 

 one full brood and a fragment of a second brood of the insect in New 

 York vinej'ards in a year. Apparently the life pendulum of the grape 

 leaf hopper has begun its downward swing after an "up" period of 

 great destructiveness for two 3 T ears, for last season they were not so 

 numerous, although millions of them went into hibernation in the fall 

 of 1902. 



The grap« fruit moth has been unusually numerous in some vine- 

 yards in Chautauqua County for two or three years, sometimes more 

 than half the fruit being ruined. We have not yet observed the 

 spring and early summer life and habits of the pest. In August we 

 readity found the eggs stuck onto the skin of the fruits in various 

 localities. They remind one much of the codling moth's egg. The 

 accepted notion has been m this country that this fruit moth is the 

 same as the European species, and that it hibernates as a pupa in its 

 cocoon made inside a peculiar flap cut from the leaf. In 1899 an 

 exhaustive account of 75 pages about the European species appeared 

 in Italy/' There the third or last brood of larvse spin their hibernat- 

 ing cocoons under the loose bark of the older parts of the vines or on 

 their supports, while the cocoons of the first and second spring and 

 summer broods that work on the flower clusters and growing fruits 

 are made among the flowers or on the leaves of grape and various 

 other plants. In October, 1903, we made a very thorough examina- 

 tion of many vines in a badly infested vineyard and failed to find any 

 cocoons except on the fallen leaves. Either we have a different spe- 

 cies from the European grape fruit moth or else it has quite a differ- 

 ent hibernating habit in New York. One of the systematists who is 

 studying this group of moths tells me that there seem to be at least 

 two different species now labeled Eudemis botrana in our collections. 

 In the Murtfeldt collection now at Cornell University there is prob- 

 ably the largest series of bred specimens of moths under this label in 

 this country, and it is quite evident at a glance that there is more 

 than one species in the material. As soon as authentic European 

 material can be obtained we hope to arrive at some definite conclu- 

 sions regarding the identity of the American grape fruit moth. We 

 also expect to carefully compare our insect in its various stages to see 

 if it corresponds in all its details with the many figures given for the 

 European species in Guercio's excellent work. 



Some experiments were made during the past season in combating 

 this grape fruit moth. Some vineyardists found they could pick off 

 the conspicuous, infested, green fruits for about $2 per acre. This is, 

 of course, a very effectual method. Some vineyards were sprayed 



«Nuove Relazioni R. Stazione di Entoniologia Agraria, Serie Prima No. 1, pp. 

 118-193, by G. del Guercio. 



