Insects injurious to fruits . ally appear during thelast week in April or early in May, depending much on theprevailing temperature. Their first meal is made of por-tions of the gummy material with which the egg-masses arecovered, and with the strength thus gained they proceed atonce to work. At this time the buds are bursting, thus pro-viding these young larvae with an abundance of suitable tenderfood. It sometimes happens, however, that after they arehatched cold weather returns and vegetable growth is tempo-rarily arrested. To meet this emergency they have the powerof sustaining hunger for
Insects injurious to fruits . ally appear during thelast week in April or early in May, depending much on theprevailing temperature. Their first meal is made of por-tions of the gummy material with which the egg-masses arecovered, and with the strength thus gained they proceed atonce to work. At this time the buds are bursting, thus pro-viding these young larvae with an abundance of suitable tenderfood. It sometimes happens, however, that after they arehatched cold weather returns and vegetable growth is tempo-rarily arrested. To meet this emergency they have the powerof sustaining hunger for a considerable time, and will usually ATTACKING THE LEAVES. 49 live from ten to twelve days when wholly deprived of food ;but severe frost is fatal to them in this tender condition, andmultitudes of them sometimes perish from this cause. Theselarvae are tent-makers, and soon after birth they begin to con-struct for themselves a shelter by extending sheets of webacross the nearest fork of the twig upon which they were Fia. hatched. As they increase in size, they construct additionallayers of silk over those previously made, attaching them tothe neighboring twigs, and leaving between the layers spaceenough for the caterpillars to pass. The tent or nest whencompleted is irregular in form, about eight or ten inches indiameter, and the holes through which the caterpillars enterare situated near the extremities or angles of the nest, and intothis they retreat at night or in stormy weather, also at other 50 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE APPLE. times when not feeding. In five or six weeks they becomefull grown, and then measure about an inch and three-quartersin length, and present the appearance shown in Fig. 41. Thebody is hairy and black, with a white stripe down the back,and on each side of this central stripe there are a number ofshort, irregular, longitudinal yellow lines. On the sides arepaler lines, with spots and streaks of pale blue. The underside of the body is nearly black.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidin, booksubjectinsectpests
