PRELIMINARY AND MINOR PAPERS 
LESSER BUD-MOTH 
By E. W. Scott and J. H. Pains, 
Entomological Assistants , Deciduous Fruit Insect Investigations , 
Bureau of Entomology 
During the spring of 1912, while engaged in apple spraying experiments 
at Benton Harbor, Mich., the senior author noticed the work of a small 
larva in the buds of unsprayed apple trees. The injury inflicted was severe 
in a neglected orchard near the laboratory, and this insect, among others, 
was the most important factor in the destruction of the entire crop of 
fruit. Because of the character of the injury, the attack on the swelling 
buds, and the tying together of the growing leaves, the damage was at 
once attributed to the eye-spotted bud-moth ( Tmetocera ocellana Schiff.). 
In 1913 a study was made of the life history and habits of this insect, 
presumably the eye-spotted bud-moth, and experiments with remedial 
measures were tried. The first discrepancy noticed between the habits 
of this insect and those of the eye-spotted bud-moth, as recorded in liter¬ 
ature, was the fact that the hibernacula were not necessarily situated 
near the buds, but were to be found in any suitable place upon the limbs. 
Following this, many other even more striking differences in habits were 
noted during the course of the season, and the fact was soon impressed 
upon the writers that they had to deal with an insect whose economic 
importance had not been recorded in the United States. 
The adult moths, upon submission to August C. Busck, of the Bureau 
of Entomology, were identified as Recurvaria crataegella Busck (1903), 1 
a species described by him (with no indication of its life history) in 1903 
from material submitted by Mr. William Dietz, of Hazleton, Pa., who 
reared it from hawthorn (Crataegus tomentosus) . At that time, however, 
Busck admitted the probability of the identity of his R. crataegella and 
the R. nanella of European authors. 
Our own observations of the life history of the lesser bud-moth corre¬ 
spond in detail with those of Houghton (1903), who published a short 
though complete account of the life history of Recurvaria nanella . The 
R. crataegella of Busck is therefore to be regarded as a synonym of 
R. nanella , and in support of this decision Busck has recently furnished 
the following statement: 
Recurvaria crataegella Busck (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., v. 25, p. 811, 1903) is identical 
with the European R . nanella Hiibner, as already suggested in the description. At 
that time the life history of the species was but fragmentarily known in Europe, and 
it was deemed the soundest course to give the American form a separate name, even 
though it was realized that it would probably prove the same as the European species. 
The subsequent careful study of the life history in Europe by J. T. Houghton and in 
this country removed all doubt about the synonymy. 
1 Bibliographic citations in parentheses refer to “ Literature cited,” p. 162. 
Vol. II, No. a 
May as, 1914 
K-7 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Dept, of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
