April, '10] PARROTT: CHERRY ER:MDIE :.\fOTH 157 cold weather which no doubt accounts for its relatively slow growth. In plots No.3, No.4, No.5 and No. 6 the damage is progressively greater as silking comes more and more completely into the time when the third brood is active. The reason, then, that early planted corn experiences less injury than corn planted later lies in the fact that early planted corn passes through its most attractive stage - silking time - before the third and by far the largest brood has appeared, or at least before it has a chance to do its full work. The experiment further shows that corn planted so early as to get a "set-back" suffers more from this than if it were planted just a little later. Clearly the optimum time for planting is just as early as the corn can be put in the ground Downloaded from and escape injury from cold weather. In summing up the practical results of this study, it may be said that the individual corn grower by planting his crop on uninfested or cleaned soil as early as the season will permit may reasonably expect to escape forty per cent of the injury he would otherwise http://jee.oxfordjournals.org/ experience.

PRESIDENTBRITTON: 'rhe next paper will be read by Mr. George G. Ainslie, Clemson .College, S. C.

NOTES ON APHIS MADIRADICIS by guest on June 9, 2016

By G. G. AINSLIE, Clemson College

[Withdrawn for publication elsewhere.]

PRESIDENTBRITTON: Mr. P. J. Parrott will now present his paper on the Ermine .

THE CHERRY ERMINE

(H padella L.)

By P. J. PARROTI', Geneva, N. Y. During June, 1909, several cherry seedlings, completely covered with silken webs, were brought to the Entomological Department for examination by Mr. John Maney of the Division of Nursery Inspection. The unfamiliar appearance of the nests and the enclosed caterpillars, coupled with the fact that the specimens were taken from 1~8 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 3 a plantation of imported nursery stock, led to the conclusion that the insect. was a fo-l:eign species, and probably an . Some of the larvie were kept in breeding cages to obtain oome adults whieh began to make their appearance on July 9. These were compared with descriptions of various authorities, and the insect was identified as the Cherry Ermine Moth (Hyponomeuta. pa.della. L.), and a state- ment to that effect was published in the JOURNALOF ECONOMICEN- TOMOLOGY,Vol. 2. p. 305. To make certain the identity of the species which we had bred, several spedmens of the moths were later sent to Dr. Paul Marchal of the Entomological Station of Paris, who confirmed our identification. This is the first time that the pest has been reported to exist in the United States, and the attention or Downloaded from entomologists is called to the circumstances of its introduction and discovery, and to the economic importance of the Ermine Moths as fruit pests. General Characters of the Ermine Moths. These moths belong to the genus Hyponomenta of the Ti1wina. There are only a few http://jee.oxfordjournals.org/ species but the genus is widely distributed. The moths are smallT with an expanse of wings varying from twenty to twenty-five milli- meters, according to the species. The anterior wings are snowy-white or greyish, marked with black dots, hence the name Ermine Moths. '1'he hind wings are darker and have long fringell. The classification of the moths is attended with considerable difficulty because of the confusion which has prevailed in the synonymy and the exceeding by guest on June 9, 2016 variableness of the characters which distinguish the species. '1'his is. not surprising as the caterpillars and moths of one species resemble like stages of another. '1'he caterpillars of several species have host- plants in common and life histories are very similar. The caterpillars are gregarious and live within a silken web. The cocoons are spun in close proximity to each other in the nests. Species Attacking Fruit Trees and Host-Plants. European. writers have generally held that there are two common species which live on fruit trees, viz.- H. 11wlinella. Z. and H. pa.della. L. The former is a common pest on apples. It has also been recorded as oc- curring on the wild service tree (Sorbus tormenalis) and Doctor Mar- chal1 has reported its presence in destructive numbers on the almond (Amygdal'US cO'/1tmttnis). '1'he latter, popularly known as the Cherry Ermine Moth feeds principally on the cultivated plum, blackthorn (pruntts spinosa) and hawthorn (Cratcegus oxyacantha). Other-

1 Marchal, Paul, Bulletin de la Societe d' Etude et de Vulgarisation de la Zoo. alogia Agricole, No.4, p. 13-26. 1902. April, '10] PARROTT: CHERHY ERMINE MOTH 159 host-plants mentioned by various writers are the cultivated and wild cherry, medlar, apple, Sorb~~saUGuparia and Pmxinus excelsior. . The moths of these two species are very similar in appearance and are frequently indistinguishable. Representative specimens of malinella have the front 'wings and the fringe white, 'while paclella has the fringe and a portion of the front wings more or less tinted with greyish. Doctor l\Tarchal is of the opinion that malinella is a variety of paclella, which has adapted itself to the apple. Differences are also to be noted in other stages. Rebate and Bernes2 state that the cater- pillar of padella is of a greyish-yellow in color, the cocoons are thin in texture, of a greyish-white color, and are more or less isolated in the nest, while the of rnalin ella is lighter in color, the cocoons are Downloaded from thicker, and are grouped in clusters. Other species attacking fruit trees are H. mahalebella Gn., which is common on the mahaleb cherry; H. evonyrnella L. (=pacli Z.) which subsists on the European Bird Cherry (Prum~s padus) and has been reported as occurring on the cultivated cherry; and H. in"orella lIb., http://jee.oxfordjournals.org/ which usually feeds on the willow and is said to have attacked culti- vated plums. A Native Species of Ermine Moth. There is one native species, H. mt~ltipttnctella Clem., which according to Chambers3 is very common in Kentucky. Dyar 4 records the Atlantic States as its range of dis- tribution and Gaumer has obtained specimens of the species in Kansas.

The caterpillar feeds on the leaves of Euo·nymus atropu1'pureus Jacq. by guest on June 9, 2016 and spins its webs over the plant as is characteristic of the of this genus. Through the kindness of W. D. Kearfott I have been able to examine specimens of the adults, which differ from the foreign species described by the larger number of black dots on the front wings and the marked difference in the coloration of the hind wings of the sexes. All the wings of the male are white, while the female has the anterior wings white and the posterior wings dark grey. Economic Importance. '1'he Ermine Moths are regarded abroad as very destructive pests of fruit trees, and because of their importance to horticultural interests, standard European works of reference on orchard insects usually contain a very complete account of these species. Marchal (1) reports that in certain areas of France mali- nella appears almost every year in more or less destructive numbers, and that in some communities where there have been serious outbreaks for successive years, almond trees have been killed. In 1902, malinella

2 Rebat~, E. and Bern~s J., La Chenille Fileuse du Prunier, p. 1-32, 1909. • Chambers, V. T., Can. Ent., Vol. 4, p. 42, 1872. • Dyar, H. G., List of N. A. , p. 489, 1902. 160 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. S

and padella were very abundant and destructive throughout France. The species mahalebella is very common on the mahaleb cherry at Fontenay, and during some seasons the wild cherries in the hedge- rows were entirely defoliated. During 1897 and 1901, this species was very abundant. Theobald5 regards l'Iwlinella and padella as im- portant pests in England. The former was very troublesome in this {;ountry in 1865, 1877 and 1880, and during the first two named years whole orchards 'were devastated, the foliage being as bare as midwin- ter. The latter feeds normally on hawthorn, often "quite defoliating the hedgerows. Saracomenos6 says that a large number of fruit trees such as apple, pears and plums which are grown on an extensive scale on the Island of Cyprus are attacked by malinella and padella. These Downloaded from prove very injurious as they destroy the crops, and if they appear in numbers for a series of years they may cause the death of the trees themselves. '1.'hedamage occasioned to apple and plum trees is always great. Rebate and Bernes' report that outbreaks of padella Occur periodically. In 1843 in Lot and Garonne all trees were attacked but http://jee.oxfordjournals.org/ in the following year the pest failed to appear. From 1867 to 1871, in 1882 and again in 1888 considerable damage was,done by the insect. The outbreak of 1901 was followed by a more severe one in 1902, and it was not till 1904 that the insect was under the control of its natural fmemies. During 1908 the caterpillars again increased to destructive numbers, and as was predicted serious depredations occurred during

1909. It is feared that greater damage will be done by these pests by guest on June 9, 2016 during 1910. Other writers comment in like manner on the destruc- tive capacity of these insects. Life Histories and Habits. The life histories of the different species are very similar. According to Marchal (1) the female mali- nella deposits her eggs during July on small twigs in oval patches about four or five millimeters in diameter. The eggs are covered with a glutinous substauce which is at first yellow, but which gradually becomes brown, resembling the color of the bark. In each mass there are from fifty to eighty eggsl which are placed in rows, overlapping one another like tiles On a roof. Hatching takes place during early autumn, but the tiny caterpillars remain sheltered through the winter under the protecting crust of the egg mass. During the follow- ing spring the young larvre abandon their hibernating quarters, and enter the expanding buds; where they assemble in numbers between 'the sepals of the calyx and petals of the blossom buds or between two

• Theobald, F. V., Insect Pests of Fruit, pp. 86-91, 1908. • Saracomenos, D., Cyprus Journal, No. 11, p. 275, 1908. April, '10] PARROTT: CHERRY ERMINE MOTH 161

leaves of the leaf buds. In the early part of May they then burrow into the parenchymatous tissues of the leaves. As many as a dozen of the caterpillars may exist in one colony. The presence of the pest is indicated at this time by the injured leaves turning red in spots. Later abandoning their mines, the larvm feed openly on the foliage, and spin webs in which they live together in colonies. During the month of June the larger tents arc formed, and in severe attacks the tree is stripped of its foliage, and is covered with a sheeting of the dirty, ragged remains of their discolored webs. The cocoons are spun side by side in the nest, in which the larvm pupate and from which the moths commence to appear in early July. The life history of padeUa differs from that of malinella in that the larvm are not leaf miners. Downloaded from Distribution of the Cherry Ermine Moth. The Cherry Ermine Moth has only been found in one locality in the State of New York. Eight nests were obtained, and with the exception of a few cater- pillars, which were kept in the laboratory to breed adults, the material was destroyed. Repeated examinations failed to find any more evi- http://jee.oxfordjournals.org/ dences of the insect in this plantation, which like all other plantings of foreign stocks, has been under very close supervision this year, because of the discovery during the early spring: of nests of the Brown- Tail Moth among these same importations. Present knowledge indi- cates that the Erm)ne Moth has not established itself in this state. Inspection of Foreign Shipments of Nursery Stock. The dis-

covery of this insect is a good example of the importance and value by guest on June 9, 2016 of efficient inspection and of the need of a closer surveillance of for- eign shipments of nursery stock. Owing to their destructive character, entomologists should be on the lookout for evidences of the Ermine Moths in nursery plantations, especially of recent importations, as these insects can be introduced in such shipments, and if once estab- lished they may prove a serious menace to our nursery and orchard interests. For the protection of nurseries, inspectors should be on the alert for plants, enclosed with webs, which should be immediately uprooted and destroyed. Spraying with arsenicals has been found in France to be an effective remedy for the treatment of orchards.

PRESIDENTBRITTON: The next paper will be read by Prof. F. L. Washburn, St. Anthony Park, Minn., entitled "Further Observations on the Apple Leaf Hopper (Empoasca mali) and Notes on Papai- pema nitela and P. cataphracta. 4