Archips parallela Rob.

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"Toward the end of May, another insect may be found attacking Sarracenia minor; this is the larva of a Tortricid—a smooth cylindrical caterpillar about seven-eights of an inch in length, dull dark sage green in color, studded with small white tubercles bearing short fine white hairs; the head and thoracic shield are yellowish-brown with black markings and the feed black.

This caterpillar seems to prefer the smaller open leaves of Sarracenia minor. It fills the upper portion of the tube with a white opaque web, through which it retreats in a tortuous passage when alarmed. In feeding it takes no care not to eat entirely through the leaf wall, and the upper portion of the hood usually shows a ragged hole where the caterpillar has fed. A number of these larvae of different ages were found in localities widely separated, so their occurrence in this food plant was evidently not accidental. Of these, one fell victim to the new leaf to which it was transferred—evidence that this insect has not yet perfectly adapted itself to this dangerous food plant.

One larva on June third left the leaf in which it had been feeding, ensconced itself on the outside of another leaf of S. minor in the angle formed by the flat wing of the leaf an the outside of the tube, and there spun a tubular shelter by bridging this corner with a web of opaque white silk; here, a few days later, it changed to a brown pupa, which on June twenty second forced its way out of the cocoon by means of the double row of spines with which its segments are armed, and the moth emerged.

Mr. W. D. Kearfott pronounces the moth to be a typical specimen of Archips parallela Rob., a widely distributed species with a long list of recorded food plants. On some of its other food plants this caterpillar spins several leaves together to form a more or less tubular shelter. It would be interesting to determine to what extent it is adapting itself to the other species of Sarracenia found within its range."

From Jones. Pitcher Plant Insects III. April 1908, 152-153. 

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