Wy) BULLETIN 504, U. S. DEPARTMENT. OF AGRICULTURE. 
year. Smith’s statement no longer holds true for New Jersey bogs, 
owing to the fact that many large areas of cranberry vines have 
been utterly destroyed by the insect in recent years. 
Owing to its habit of feeding concealed in trash under the vines, 
the worm is very difficult to find and has been overlooked by many 
growers who were aware of the injury but uncertain as to the cause. 
HISTORY. 
The cranberry girdler has figured in entomological writings as a 
pest of grasses and will be found referred to in that connection as 
the “ garden crambid ” or “ garden veneer.” In cranberry districts 
it is frequently spoken of as the “ girdle worm,” but the generally 
accepted name for the species is the “ cranberry girdler.” 
From the time of its description by Hiibner (1, p. 29, pl. 7, figs. 
45,46) in Europe until the work of Scudder (5) and of Felt (6, p. 
75-16, 87-88, 99-100; fig. 7; pl. 3, fig. 19; pl. 9, fig. 19; pl. 14, fig. 19) 
little was known of its habits. The American form was first de- 
scribed by Zeller (3, p. 155-156) under the name of Crambus topiarius, 
and later by Grote (4, p. 74), who stated that Zeller considered 
topiarius to represent the European hortuellus in the American 
fauna. Of late years the girdler has been the subject of considerable 
study in Massachusetts by Franklin (10, p. 7-8). 
DISTRIBUTION. 
This pest is not confined to the cranberry-growing sections, but 
is widespread throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada. 
Originally described as a European species, it is listed by Wood 
2, p. 216, pl. 47, fig. 1497, ») from various parts of England and 
by Felt (6, p. 99) from St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. Felt 
gives the distribution as Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, 
Tllinois, Nevada, and California, from which it may be noted that 
the species occurs practically from one end of this country to the 
other, and it is probable that it will be recorded eventually from 
every State in the Union. In the cranberry districts of Massa- 
chussetts and New Jersey it is very abundant, and in New Jersey 
especially it may be said that the majority of bogs show more or less 
injury by this species. It is common in Wisconsin, but has not be- 
come a serious cranberry pest, probably because the bog floors, as a 
rule, are kept wetter than those in the eastern cranberry States. 
FOOD PLANTS. 
The early records mention this insect as having been found com- 
monly on grasses, but just what grasses is not specified. Fernald (7, 
