mm. The forewings are marked with two oblique brown bands, 
and the hindwings are white. Full-grown larvae are light green 
except for amber-yellow heads and are about 20 mm. long. This 
species sometimes causes serious defoliation locally. 
Several other species of Argyrotaenia are recorded as feeding 
on eastern trees (266): A. occultana Freeman—on spruce and 
occasionally balsam fir and larch (in Canada and New York) ; 
A. mariana (Fern.)—on paper birch, willow, choke cherry, elm, 
pear, Vaccinium, and possibly oak (from eastern Canada to 
Florida); A. quadrifasciana (Fern.)—on hawthorn, shadbush, 
plum, and pear (in southeastern Canada and from Maine to Mis- 
souri) ; and A. alisellana (Rob.)—on oak (from southern Canada 
to Florida). 
Croesia albicomna (Clem.) [=semipurpurana (Kft.)] feeds on 
various oaks from southeastern Canada and Massachusetts to 
Minnesota and Texas. Adults have wingspreads of about 12 mm. 
The forewings vary in color from almost solid yellow to yellow 
with dark brown markings. The full-grown larva is dirty white to 
light green, except for a pale head and brown to black thoracic 
legs, and is about 12 mm. long. 
Eggs are laid individually on the bark of second-year wood of 
branches in late June and early July and hatch in April of the 
following year. Newly-hatched larvae enter unopened buds and 
feed on the young leaves. Older ones fold together sections of 
leaves and feed inside the folds. When they reach maturity in 
May, they spin down to the ground and pupate in the litter. 
Adults appear a week or two later (51). 
Serious outbreaks have occurred in the Northeastern and 
Middle Atlantic States in recent years. During 1964 and 1965, 
approximately a half million acres of red oak were severely de- 
foliated in Pennsylvania alone, resulting in considerable tree 
mortality. 
The black-headed budworm, Acleris (=Peronea) variana 
(Fern.), occurs from coast to coast in Canada and southward into 
the United States. In eastern United States and Canada, balsam 
fir is its preferred host, but during epidemics, white and some- 
times red and black spruces and hemlock may also be defoliated 
(475). The adult is predominantly mottled gray with various 
brown, white, or gray ragged bands across the wings. Some indi- 
viduals have a white, yellow, or orange stripe down each wing. 
The wingspread is about 19 mm. Full-grown larvae are bright 
green and about 12 to 16 mm. long. 
Adults appear during August and September and deposit their 
eggs singly on the undersides of needles, mostly on the upper 
branches. The winter is spent in the egg stage. Hatching occurs 
in the spring, and the young larvae burrow into the expanding 
buds. As the new needles grow, the larvae web together a few of 
them and feed within. Once the new needles are devoured, the 
larvae feed on the old ones. Pupation occurs within webbed 
masses of partially eaten and damaged needles. 
In eastern America, extensive outbreaks tend to occur at in- 
tervals of 10 to 15 years in stands where maturing balsam fir is 
dominant, but they usually subside before many trees are killed. 
Acleris chalybeana (Fern.) has been recorded from Ontario, 
Quebec, Wisconsin, Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania. The 
385 
