THE INSECT WORLD. 



rather difficult to deal with. One of these is the Mineola vaccinii, 

 or " cranberry-fruit worm," which lives in the berry itself, feed- 

 ing in the seed-capsule, causing the fruit to redden up prema- 

 turely, and then to dry and shrivel on the vine. A single 

 caterpillar may eat into every berry upon a fruit stem in the 

 course of its existence, then 

 descends to the ground, and 

 among the leaves and rub- 

 bish spins a tough little co- 

 coon in which the pupa 

 winters safely, even if cov- 

 ered by water. The eggs 

 are laid about the middle of 

 July, singly, on the berries 

 where the blossoms have 

 dropped off, under one of 

 the little triangular flaps. 



Once the lar\^« are in the «, cranberry on which (^-.c) the eggs are laid; 

 . . r ^' '^^'^'3^ ; ^'/> pupa and its tip ; g, cocoon ; h, 



berries there is no way 01 moth, 

 getting at them, and, practi- 

 cally, the only method of reducing their numbers is to pick the 

 berries as early as may be, being careful to get in all that are 

 infested. By sorting promptly these can be destroyed before 

 the larvae leave them, lessening greatly the number of moths for 

 the following year. The insect is much more troublesome in 

 New England than in New Jersey or in the northwestern marshes. 



Nearly allied, but with totally different habits, is the Mineola 

 indiginella, or "rascal apple-leaf crumpler," so called from its 

 habit of making irregular, crumpled cases on the apple leaves 

 upon which the insect feeds. It is rather easily reached, where it 

 becomes troublesome, by the arsenical sprays, and in orchards 

 where spraying is generally practised it is incidentally destroyed. 

 Many other of these little species are found on our cultivated 

 crops, but, as a rule, in such small numbers as to be hardly no- 

 ticeable, and only occasionally a species becomes locally injurious. 



One of the largest of our Eastern species is the Melitara pro- 

 denialis, which feeds inside the leaves of the prickly pear or 

 common cactus of the sandy regions south of Long Island, while 

 its near ally, M. dentata, is found in an allied cactus in Kansas 



Fig. 357. 



Cranberry-fruit worm, Mineola vaccinii. — 



