322 



AN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



and leaving the empty pupa cases projecting all around. Some 

 species are occasionally so numerous that the nests constructed 

 by them become enormous, — four or five feet in height, and 

 covering young trees entirely. This and other species having 

 the same habit can be dealt with by early spraying, or, when 

 feasible, by picking off the webbed leaves or shoots. 



The best known of all belonging to this family is the ' ' codling 

 moth," Carpocapsa po7no7ieila, and there is no insect, except possi- 

 bly the ' ' plum curculio," that has done more injury to our orchard- 

 ists. The moth appears at about the time the apple-trees are in 



blossom, and lays a single 

 egg upon the young fruit at 

 the point where the blossom 

 has dropped off. In a few 

 days the caterpillar hatches, 

 eats a little on the outside 

 for a day or two, and then 

 makes its way into the fruit 

 itself, feeding around the 

 seed-capsule or core, and 

 making the well-known 

 ' ' worm' ' in the apple. Oc- 

 casionally t^vo or more 

 moths may oviposit on the 

 same fruit, and this ac- 

 counts for the two or more 

 larvae sometimes found in 

 one apple. Except in the 

 northern part of the country, 

 there are two broods, the 

 first caterpillars becoming full-grown and leaving the apples about 

 midsummer, changing very soon thereafter to moths, which lay 

 the eggs for the larvae found in the ripe apples. The second 

 brood does not so usually oviposit at the blossom end, but seems 

 to have a preference for the point where two fruits touch, for we 

 often notice that in a little bunch of apples every one is infested, 

 the entrance in all cases being just at the point of contact. In any 

 event, whether there is one brood or two, the caterpillars of the 

 last, when full-grown, leave the apples, find a hiding-place under 



The codling moth, Carpocapsa po77ionella. — a, 

 apple' cut to show borings of the larva ; b, place 

 where the egg was laid and the larva started ; 

 d, pupa ; larva ; /, g, moths at rest and with 

 wings spread ; h, head of larva ; z, cocoon. 



