INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE CKANBERJiY. 



119 



simulating the color of the twigs of the cranberry, and 

 is finely lineated with still darker lines. The head is 

 speckled with brown, with a conspicuous transverse band 

 across the vertex, and two row^s of pale spots across the 

 front. Just above the spiracles is a broad, dusky band. 

 Beneath the body is paler, with a mesial clear line, edged 

 with brown. It is 0.8 of an inch in length." 



This year I have heard from them but once. On the 

 3d of August, Freeman Ryder, Jr., of North Harwich, 

 sent me a small box, by mail, containing quite a number 

 of these span worms, I could not visit Mr. Ryder's bog 

 until the next week, and when I did so, I found that they 

 had all disappeared. They w^ere not near so numerous as 

 on Mr. Underwood's bog, last year. I think that they 

 must go just under the surface of tlie ground to change 

 to chrysalides. 



Only tw^o of those I received changed to chrysalides, 

 and, as yet, the moth has not escaped. The chrysalis is 

 0.38 of an inch in length, of a mahogany-brown color, 

 quite dark about the head. 



This insect is probably only an occasional feeder upon 

 the cranbeiry, for if this plant was its only food, we 

 should find it every year upon the bogs. It has been 

 suggested to me that the European House Sparrow^ might 

 be made useful if this insect should ever become very 

 numerous. If it would hunt out the vine worms also, 

 and catch the millers as they come forth, it would be a 

 very valuable friend. 



The common Blue Bird is one of the greatest destroyers 

 of small caterpillars and worms, and should be protected 

 everywhere. This span worm feeds upon the tender 

 shoots, and later upon the older leaves. It spins no web. 



The Cecidomyia, or Gall Gnat, of the Cranberry. 



We now come to an insect very diiferent from those 

 before described. 



