68 



as the present species and writes: ''It is very troublesome and 

 numerous indeed tins year throughout the State .[Illinois]. As 

 the worms remain in their silken cases through the winter the best 

 manner of destroying them is to pluck them from the twigs at 

 that season of the year, when they may be readily discovered, and 

 to burn them. The moth which produces them should also be de- 

 stroyed whenever seen." 



About this time Mr. Walsh also received specimens of this insect 

 from Iowa, and recommended the hand picking of the larval cases ' 

 (Practical Entomologist, Vol. II., p. 18). The species was also 

 briefly mentioned by Townend Glover in the Beport of the Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture for the same year (1867, p. 73). 



Ai^ain, in the "Prairie Farmer" for July 10, 1869, Mr. B. T. Taylor 

 (residence not given, but presumably Illinois) publishes a note con- 

 cerning an insect attacking apple-trees, which, from specimens sent, 

 is identified by Dr. Riley as the leaf crumpler. The larvae evidently 

 were destructively numerous, for Mr. Taylor writes that after pick- 

 ing the leafy cases, one tree was left to see what effect the worms 

 would have upon it. But when the injury that was being done 

 was discovered, Mr. T. killed all the worms he could find, and 

 expresses the opinion that had this not been done, the trees 

 w^ould have been defoliated. 



In the "Canadian Entomologist" for July, 1870 (Vol. II., pp. 

 126-128), Mr. Wm. Saunders records the occurrence of the leaf 

 crumpler on apple trees at London, Ont., and gives an excellent 

 account of the life history of the species. There is here noted, for 

 the first time, I believe, a habit of the larva, the effect of which 

 may be seen on almost any infested tree — that of gnawing the 

 green bark of the tender twigs. He suggests that this habit of 

 "gnawing away all the young bark from and about.,,ilie^pot to 

 which the case is attached, would in all probabilffy lead some- 

 times to the girdling of the yoang branches and their consequent 

 death." The breeding of an Ichneumon parapte from this species 

 is also here recorded 



Mr. D. B. Wier published in the "Pra|rie Farmer" for February 

 17, 1872, a lengthy article concerning this species, mentioning it 

 Id the introduction as an insect that "sometimes l)ecomes very 

 noxious, both in orchard and nursery." Concerning its winter and 

 early spring history, he writes as follows: 



"Like the black bear, winter finds it rolling in fat and securely 

 housed, but spring finds it a most pitiable object indeed; its fat 

 rounded abd(jmen of the fall before is shriveled to a mere point, 

 the worm of ha'f an inch scarcely measures an eighth; ai:dit seems 

 to be all head and no body. Yet it is lively and anxiously moves 

 its house about in the warm part of the day, awaiting the pusli- 

 ing of the buds. As soon as the buds have swollen enough to ex- 

 pose the tender i)arts, it attacks the first it reaches and eats all 

 its tender parts. By this our Phycita does us the greatest dam- 

 age. If there are a great many on the tree they destroy nearly 



