3]6 



INJUKIOUS INSECTS AND FUNGI. 



[Dec. 1895. 



much less apparent than in the case of apples, so that it is 

 difficult to pick out the infested fruits in order to avoid eating 

 or cooking them. 



Description and Life History. 



The moth (Figs. 1 and 3) has a wing expanse of about three- 

 fourths of an inch, and its body is not quite one-fourth of an 

 inch in length. In colour it is grey with darker grey markings 

 upon the forewings. At the oval angle of the fore-wings, there 

 is a spot edged with shiny pale grey, enclosing four black dots, 

 which distinguish this species from the four other species of 

 the genus Garpocapsa. The moth appears in July and places 

 eggs singly upon the plums. Caterpillars come from the eggs 

 in a few days, and bore holes into the fruit. They are very small, 

 and the hole is almost imperceptible to the naked eye, so that 

 infested plums cannot be readily distinguished. Sometimes 

 there is a slight exudation of gum, or a slight crack in the 

 skin. When the caterpillar is fully fed it makes a small 

 hole, and escapes, letting itself down to the ground by means 

 of a silk thread, if the plum is still on the tree. It does 

 not touch the stone, but lives in the most fleshy parts of 

 the fruit. The caterpillar at first is dirty white in colour, 

 then becomes pink, and finally reddish. It has three pairs of 

 claw feet, and four pairs of sucker feet, and ;is nearly three- 

 quarters of an inch long (Fig. 4). The caterpillar crawls up 

 the plum trees near, and gers into the cracks in the bark, con- 

 structing a cocoon in which it remains until the spring, when it 

 changes to a chrysalis of an amber colour. In two or three 

 weeks the m^oths come forth. The white cocoon in which 

 the caterpillars spin is very small, so that it requires close 

 inspection to find it on the trees. Some caterpillars kept 

 in boxes emerged from the plums and spun up in the corners of 

 the boxes as well as upon twigs placed in them. It is believed 

 that the caterpillars occasionally make cocoons under the plum 

 trees upon dead leaves and pieces of dead twigs and branches. 



Methods of Prevention and Remedies. 



Plum trees should be carefully examined with the help of a 

 pocket magnifying glass for the small white web-like cocoons 

 in the rifts of the bark. If they are noticed the trees should be 

 scraped. It would be well also after an attack, to dig hot lime 

 in close round the plum trees deeply so that any caterpillars 

 there would be buried. 



