76 



count of its life history and injuries. Substantially the same 

 article appeared in the "American Naturalist" for June, 1871 (Vol. 

 v., p. 209). Dr. Packard had obtained his specimens from cran- 

 berry-feeding larvae collected in New Jersey. 



In the report above cited, Dr. LeBaron states that the larvae 

 had been very destructive on the grounds of D. B. Wier, Lacon, 

 111. At the time of his visit the injury was so apparent that be- 

 fore reaching the place his "attention was arrested by the blasted 

 appearance of the apple nursery, the foliage looking at a distance 

 as if it had been scorched by fire. At this date most of the insects 

 were either pupse or imagos, the latter being so abundant that a 

 flock of them could be put to flight almost anywhere by brushing 

 against the plants." Dr. LeBaron states that "there are at least 

 two broods of this insect in a season, the first brood of moths 

 appearing early enough to deposit their eggs in the folds of the 

 young leaves just as they begin to open. * * * Another brood ^ 

 was just emerging, as I have above stated, in the third week of 

 July. * * * In what form they pass the winter I believe has 

 not yet been determined." 



Of the larval habits Dr. LeBaron writes: "Usually one cater- 

 pillar, sometimes two or three, eats off the upper cuticle of the 

 leaf, curling the two sides upwards till the edges nearly or quite 

 meet, and tying them together with web. In this enclosure the 

 little caterpillar goes through its transformations. It lines the op- 

 posite sides of the leaf, where the pupa lies, with white silk." 



According to Mr. Wier's observations, "Ihe young of the last 

 brood, hatching as they do on the surface of the mature and rigid 

 leaf, -do not draw its edges together, but simply protect themselves 

 by constructing a web over the surface of the leaf."* 



Concerning the rapidity of increase and possible remedies, Dr. 

 LeBaron writes: "This little insect furnishes a very remarkable 

 example of the sudden appearance and rapid multiplication of 

 noxious species. The moth is so rare that I cannot learn that it 

 has -ever before been seen, even by entomologists. If this insect 

 should spread so as to infest other nurseries as it has that of Mr. 

 Wier, it would prove itself a pest of the most serious character; 

 and, so far as we can judge from present appearances, it will be 

 a difficult matter to reach them (the larvfB) with remedial 

 agencies, both on account of the closure of the leaf in which they 

 dwell and their webby covering. * * * Mr. Wier thinks it 

 would have paid him well to have gone through his nurser}^ early 

 in the season and picked off the folded leaves. It is evident that 

 whatever applications we make use of here must be made before 

 the young insects have time to close the leaf above them, in the 

 case of the first brood, or before they have covered themselves 

 with web, in the second. * * * These little worms are so 

 tender and so unprotected by any hairy covering that I should 



• It ^(^(fiiiH prf)biiblf' (liiit Mr. Wier mistook rho larvic of Ponpelia ha iriinondi. for tliosc' of lhf> 

 leaf rolh'r, !Vk llit^ hiffcr ;irp, not known to havi' Mils Iwibit. 



