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, 
Ill. 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 pupae 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, “The 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 larvae) 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 nursery 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 seems probable that Mr. Wier mistook che larvae of Pempelia hammondi for those of the 
leaf roller, as the latter are not known to have this habit. 
