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REPORT OF DR. FITCH

ON THE

NOXIOUS AND OTHER INSECTS

Detrimental to Agriculture.

ALSO

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW YORK STATE
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

INSECTS INFESTING GARDENS.

9, Norrnern Toxsacco-worm, Porato-worm, Tomaro-worm, Sphina quinquemac-
ulata, Haworth. (Lepidoptera. Sphingide.) Plate 4, fig. 1.

Eating the leaves of potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco, in July and August, a large green
worm, the size of one’s finger, with a black horn at the end of its back and along each side a
row of seven white or pale yellow marks resembling the letter < with its pointed end forward;
lying under ground in its pupa state during the winter and spring, and producing a large gray
moth, four and a half inches wide across its extended wings, having a row of five yellow spots
along each side of its body and two narrow black zigzag bands across the middle of its hind
wings.

Hon. William Kelly, in a letter enclosing to me one of the millers
which had been obtained from the tobacco-worm by Charles L. Roberts,
Esq., of Tariffville, Ct., well remarks that the culture of tobacco has
become so important an interest now at the North, that any information in
regard to its insect enemies will be read with interest. Mr. Roberts
alludes to this tobacco-worm as being quite prevalent in his vicinity.
And the pains which some other correspondents and friends engaged in
the culture of tobacco have taken to transmit specimens of the worm or
the miller to me is an evidence of the importance they attach to this insect.
And it may well be regarded as an important enemy; for this tobacco-worm
makes the growing of tobacco twice as laborious a task as it would be if
we had no such insect in our country.

This is currently supposed to be a new insect here at the North, unlike
anything which we previously had, and that its presence here is due to
the extensive growing of tobacco which has recently been commenced.
It, however, is the same worm which, from time immemorial, we have
been accustomed to meet with in midsummer upon our potato vines, and

ft

4

TOBACCO-WORM. ITS HABITS. THE PUPA. DEPTH OF ITS INTERMENT.

the plants in the greatest numbers. They move about but little during the
daytime, and being of the same green color as the stalks and leaves, they
are difficult to discover. Usually, the presence of one of these worms upon
our tomatoes is first indicated tous by the large black pellets of excrement
which it drops, some of which frequently lodge in the forks of the stalks or
adhere to the glutinous hairs of the plant. These pellets are of a short
cylindrical form, and deeply grooved lengthwise; and the worm, as if to
guard against its presence being betrayed hereby, when it is crawling
along the stalks, if it chances to come to one of these pellets, it pauses and
takes it up in its jaws and drops it to the ground.

When the worm is grown to its full size it leaves the plant on which it
has hitherto been living, sometimes wandering away to a distance from it,
and roots down into the ground to the depth of some inches below the
surface. It here becomes quiescent, and casting off its larva skin it
appears in its pupa or chrysalis form. By this change it is diminished a
third in its size and is now of an oval form, four times as long as thick,
and covered with a hard crustaceous shell of a glossy bright chestnut color.
This pupa of the tobacco-worm is particularly curious from having its for-
ward end prolonged on one side into a long slender limb which is bent
backwards, reaching the middle of the body, where its end touches and
is firmly soldered to the surface, thus forming a kind of loop resembling
the handle to a pitcher—this being the sheath in which the tongue is
enclosed, which in the perfect insect becomes developed to such a remark-
able length. In this state the insect remains through the winter and
spring. It is currently stated that it lies so deep in the ground as to be
beyond the reach of the winter’s frost, but this point requires further inves-
tigation, for frequently in harvesting potatoes this chrysalis is disinterred,
lying only a few inches below the surface. Every laborer who has been
much employed in digging potatoes, and every boy who has been assigned
the task of picking them up, will recollect having noticed it, the curious
loop or pitcher-like handle on one side having particularly drawn his
attention to it. In the garden, also, where tomatoes have been grown, I
have met with it only slightly underground. The subsoil, moreover,
beneath where it is loosened by the plow, is in most sitnations so compact
and hard that it would be a very arduous labor for the worm to penetrate
downward in it twelve inches or more; and for the moth, after it comes out
from the pupa shell, to force itself up such a distance through this compact
subsoil, would seem to be quite impossible. We know, furthermore, that
the pupz of the other lepidoptera, several of them equalling this in size,
pass the winter, some in cocoons elevated above the ground, others
upon the surface, others slightly under the surface, where they one and all
become congealed by the winter’s cold without impairing their vitality. I
am therefore led to conclude that the repeated instances in which I have
‘met with this pupa lying but a few inches within the loose surface soil
were not abnormal, but that this is the depth to which it is commonly
buried; and that previous accounts, which represent it as lying deep in
the ground, beyond the reach of the frost, are erroneous. When the

i)
YOBACCO-WORM. MOTH DESCRIBED. ITS HEAD. ITS BODY.
warmth of spring has penetrated the earth sufficiently to quicken it again
into life, its internal parts continue their growth and development, until
the perfect insect becomes formed within the pupa shell. This shell then
cracks open and the moth withdraws itself from it, crowds its way upward
through the ground, and comes forth in its perfect form.

We next proceed to describe this insect in its different states.

The Morn or perfect insect (Plate 4, fig. 1, is densely coated over with
hairs and scales, wholly hiding the surface of the body from view. Its
dimensions vary in the two sexes—the body of the female being somewhat
shorter and more thick than that of the male. The former usually mea-
sures two inches in length, the latter a quarter of an inch more. Its width
from tip to tip of the extended wings is much the same in both sexes—
seldom varying but a trifle from four inches and a half.

The Heap is pale gray with a brown spot upon each side forward of the
eye. The eyes are large and protuberant. The palpi are large and ap-
pressed to the under side of the head, with their ends projecting forward
and forming a bluntly-rounded apex to the head. The long spiral tongue
is glossy, yellowish brown, with its basal portion black on each side. The
antenne are almost half the length ef the body, and somewhat shorter in the
female than ia the male. They are brown, and on the exterior side hoary
gray. They are nearly straight, and of a thick clumsy appearance, increas-
ing in thickness very slightly and gradually from the base almost to the
tip, and then rapidly taper into a sharp point, which is curved backward,
In the males they have along the two flattened faces of their inner side a
fine fringe of short hairs placed at the end of each joint.

The THerax is gray, and in front is crossed by two curved black lines
meeting at their ends, forming tke outline of a crescent having its convex
‘side forward. And on each side of the middle are two black lines parallel
with each ether through most ef their length, extending backward and out-
ward along the edges of the shoulder cover. The hind part of the thorax
is brown, with a large black spot upon each side—each of these black
spots having on its fore side a roundish blue gray spot, which is edged an-
teriorly with a transverse line of white er sky-blue hairs. The sides are
pale gray, with a brown streak extending from the eye backward to the
under side of the wing socket. i

The Aspomen has the form ef a cone nearly three times as long as thick.
In the males it is composed of seven rings—the last ones becoming grad
ually sherter, and ending in two compressed tufts of hair, which are of a
broad elliptical form, and tapering to a point at their ends. In the females
the abdomen is plainly skorter and thicker, composed of but six rings—the
Jast one larger than that which precedes it, and ending in a crown of hairs
forming a short cylindrical brush. Qn the back it is of a gray color, with
a slender black stripe along the middle, a white band at the base, and a row
of white spots along each side placed in the sutures—the opposite spots
being in seme instances prolonged into each other, and thus forming a white
band upon each suture. Upon the sides the ground color is coal black—
this color being notched inte at the sutures by the above mentioned row ef

6

*OBACCO-WORM. THE MOTH. ITS LEGS. PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE WINGS.-
white spots along its upper side, and more deeply along its lower side by
a similar row of larger white spots; and on the middle of each of the five
first rings is a large round spot of a bright ochre yellow color—the hind
ones smaller. The under side is pale gray, with a row of round black
spots along the middle, from three to five in nuamber—the second one being
the largest.

The Lees are gray, paler on their undersides, the feet becoming brown
towards their tips, with white rings on the joints. The middle and hind
shanks have a pair of spurs at their tips on the underside, and the hind ones
have a second pair placed a short distance above the first. These spurs
are gray, with naked brown shining thorn-like tips, one spur of each pair
being longer than its mate. The feet are five-jointed, the first joint being
much the longest, and the following ones successively shorter, with a pair
of sharp hooks at the end. On their undersides are rows of small black or
brown prickles, with a crown of larger ones at the apex of each joint, and
along the hindside of the forward feet and shanks is a series of much larger
ones.

Preliminary to our description of the wings of this moth the reader should
be apprised of some generalities respecting the markings of the wings in
the insects of this order. In the immensely numerous group which in com-
mon language we designate as millers or moths, and which are scientifi-
cally termed the Crepuscular and Nocturnal Lepidoptera, an almost endless
diversity in the spots and marks upon the fore wings is met with. Upon
looking them over, one after another, no one will suspeet there is any sys-
tem, any uniformity, to these spots and marks, except it may be here and
there among the individuals of a particular genus or tribe. And yet, when
we come to inspect them more particularly, we shall discover that the same
general designs are repeated, the same pattern is copied, more or less com-
pletely and distinctly, all through this vast series of objects, it being vari-
ations only in the minor details of the figures, as to their particular form,
size, colors and distinctness, that make up the wonderful diversity which
exists. These markings, which are common to the wings of such numbers
of these moths, are situated and designated as follows: First, between the
centre of the wings and its outer margin we observe sometimes one but more
commonly two small spots of a peculiar aspect. These are called the stigmas
or stigmata, this name stigma having been anciently given to a mark burned
with a hot iron upon the foreheads of slaves who had been convicted of
theft or other crime. Second, extending across the middle of the wing and
between the two stigmas is frequently a darker cloudlness, which has been
termed the median shade. Finally, the wing is also crossed by three bands,
bars or strigee, as they are differently termed by different writers; first,
the anterior, extra-basal or sub-basal, which is placed immediately forward
of the anterior stigma; second, the post-medial or elbowed band, immedi-
ately back of the posterior stigma; and third, the sub-terminal, sub-apical
or penultimate, which is usually more slender and distinct than either of
the others and is parallel with and a short space forward of the hind mar-
gin. Inthe moth which is now before us the spots and marks upon the

7

TOBACCO-WORM. THE MOTH. ITS WINGS DESCRIBED.

fore wings appear to have been regarded by previous writers as being so
confused and obscure that they have attempted to give no full description
of them. Yet we here find the same series of bands extending across the
wings as are mentioned above, though portions of some of them are so
modified, so faint and irregular, that they can be satisfactorily made out
only in specimens which are most perfect, and by an eye that is well exer-
cised in tracing the very obscure marks which so frequently occur upon
the wings of this order of insects.

The Wines are long and narrow, the hind ones twice and the forward
ones nearly thrice as long as broad. They are traversed by strong longi-
tudinal veins, of which there are eight in number ending in the hind mar-
gin of each wing and running nearly parallel and equidistant from each
other. The upper wings are gray with a large faint brown cloud occupy-
ing the disk and apex. Two bands, each formed of three parallel brown
or blackish lines extend across these wings, very irregularly, the one
before, the other behind the middle. The anterior band we describe as
follows. On the inner margin towards the base are three parallel lines,
usually very distinct, running obliquely backward and outward half way
across the wing to the anterior end of the brown cloud, each line being
turned abruptly forward and forming an acute angular point upon the
seventh one of the eight longitudinal veins. Beyond this, these lines
become very obscurely traced, only one or two of them being dimly per-
ceptible, extending along the outer side of the anterior end of the brown
cloud, till they nearly reach the small stigma spot, where they again turn
obliquely forward and outward, here becoming more distinct for a short
distance on the inner side of the first vein, across which they are continued
in three very oblique streaks to the outer margin, the anterior one ending about
opposite to its commencement on the inner margin, The stigma is a very
small egg-shaped spot, placed obliquely, with its smaller end towards the in-
ner base of the wing, its centre gray and no paler than the ground color around
it, it being in most instances marked only by the dusky ring around its margin.
The three lines forming the post-medial band commence near the middle of
the inner margin, the two anterior lines running backwards parallel with
the inner margin, till they reach the inner vein of the wing, between which
and the next vein they each form a mark shaped like an arrow-head, at a
considerable distance apart. They then pass upon the brown cloud which
occupies the central portion of the wing, where they are widened into two
broad, dusky streaks, which are cloud-like and obscure, running obliquely
and nearly parallel with the hind margin until they reach the fourth vein,
where they abruptly turn to a transverse direction and extend onward to
the margin at right angles therewith, these lines being formed of conflu-
ent arrow-headed spots, which are more distinct in the anterior line, particu-
larly at its outer end, The third line of this band extends across the wing
parallel with tne second one, the space between them being grayish, this
color forming three or four pale cloud-like spots on the inner side of the
middle of the wing occupying the angles formed by the arrow-heads com-
posing this portion of the second line. Where this third line crosses the

8

TOBACCO-WORM. THE MOTH. ITS UNDER WINGS.

inner vein it juts backward, forming a very acute angle, as it does also in
a less degree in crossing most of the other veins Extending across the
three lines of the post-medial band, in the space between the third and
fourth veins, are two very slender black lines, which are united at their
ends, forming a very narrow, elongated ellipsis, its anterior end very acute
and reaching almost to the stigma. And parallel with this on its inner
side, in the space between the fourth and fifth veins is a similar ellipsis,
which is less than half the size of the outer one. These ellipses some-
times appear merely as gray streaks, the black lines along their edges
being obsolete, that along the outer edge of the outer one being most
prominent and near its forward end widened into a small oval spot. For-
ward of the hind margin is a coal black line, the sub-terminal, the most dis-
tinct and conspicuous of all the marks upon the wings. It is waved towards
its inner end, conforming to corresponding but more slight curvatures of
the third line of the post-medial band, with which line it is parallel through
its whole length, a narrow brown space intervening between them. It is
frequently deflected forward as it crosses the fourth vein, and it here ter-
minates in the hind end of the elongated ellipsis. Behind this hne, extend-
ing along the border of the wing near its extreme edge, is a white line,
the space between it and the black line being clouded with bluish gray.
Finally, upon the brown ground at the apex of the wing is an oblique coal
black line, extending from tip forward and inward to the post-medial
band, where it ends between the second and third veins, Its hinder por-
tion is margined on the outer side by a pale streak, and where it crosses
the second vein it curves forward and forms an acute angle. The fringe
is short and brown, alternated with small gray spots placed half way
between the ends of the veins.

The under wings are blackish at their base, and have a broad, gray hind
border, all their middle portion being dull white, and crossed by four black
bands. ‘The anterior band is curved, and is commonly united with the second
band inside of the middle, and again at its inner end. The second and third
bands are parallel or slightly recede from each other towards their outer
ends, their inner ends being usually curved almost to a half circle, with the
concave side facing forward, the second band being widened and often
becoming double inthe middle of its curvature. Through the remainder of
their length these bands are zig-zag or composed of arrow heads united at
their ends, which form acute points projecting backward upon each of the
veins. The fourth band is broader than the others, but towards its inner
end it tapers and gradually becomes slender, its outer end being curved
forward. It is parallel with the hind margin, and forms a border to the
gray color of the hind part of the wing. The fringe is short, and of a brown
color alternated with white, and becoming wholly white at the inner angle.

On their undersides their upper wings are dull brownish gray, more clear
gray along the outer border, and are crossed in their middle by two ob-
scure dusky bands, sometimes with a third band very dimly perceptible
between them. These bands, asis particularly obvious in the hind one, are

9

TOBACCO-WORM. THE WORM DESCRIBED.

formed of a series of curves on the spaces between the veins, with their
ends turned backward and forming angles upon the veins; and at the tips
of these wings is a black oblique line, corresponding with that upon the
upper side, but much more slender and simple. The hind wings are gray,
with their hind border down, and are crossed by two blackish bands, which
are repetitions of the two middle bands of the upper surface, but more dim,
more slender, and running back upon the veins in longer and sharper points.

The Larva grows to the thickness of one’s little finger, and is somewhat
over three inches in length or three and a half inches when it is crawling,
it being then more elongated than when at rest. Its surface is destitute
of hairs or bristles. It is divided into thirteen segments, those at each end

\]

a
LAS
A

FERGUSON ALBANCILE

Tobacco Worm.

being shorter and less distinct. The surface of each segment of the body
is crossed transversely by impressed lines and roundly elevated intervening
spaces, giving them a ribbed appearance, there being eight of these eleva-
ted ribs to each segment. In viewing this larva the eye first of all notices
a formidable looking, stout, thorn-like horn, placed at the hind end of the
back, and projecting obliquely upward and backward, about as long as the
segment which is next forward of it, slightly curved, and its surface rough
from little projecting points. Low down upon each side is a row of large
oval dots, which are the spiracles or breathing pores. The head is small,
horny and shining, of a flattened spherical form, and the mouth furnished
with a pair of stout jaws. It has three pairs of small tapering feet placed
anteriorly upon the breast, each having a sharp hook at its end, and four
pairs of short, thick, fleshy pro-legs along the underside of the body, with
two similar ones at the tip. ;

The color of this worm is commonly bright green marked with white.
Numerous faint whitish dots are usually perceptible, at least on the fore-
part and underside of its body, and along each side are seven straight oblique
stripes, the last one of which is prolonged more or less distinctly to the
base of the curved horn. These stripes are usually margined along their
upper sides by a faint dusky cloudiness; and meeting their lower ends is a
longitudinal stripe, placed low down upon each segment, and forming with
the oblique stripe, a V-shaped mark, having its point directed forward, with
the breathing pore placed in the augle which is thus formed. The hind-
most breathing pore also has a much shorter and more faint white stripe

10

TOBACCO-WORM. VARIES GREATLY IN COLOR. THE PUPA DESCRIBED.

on its upper and another on its lower side, the two stripes uniting together
forward of it; and at the anterior end a faint white streak is commonly
visible for a short distance forward of the lower end of the first oblique
stripe. At the hind end of the body is a flattened triangular space which
is margined with white upon each side. The head is green, sometimes
with a vertical black streak upon each side. The anterior legs are dusky
towards their tips, and on their inner sides are a few small black bristles.
The soles of the pro-legs are black, as is also the curved horn at the end of
the back.

This larva is liable to vary in its colors to a surprising extent. Many
persons from noticing in their gardens worms which are so totally dissimi-
Jar in their colors confidently suppose there are two or three different spe-
cies of them infesting their tomatoes. And the same varieties occur upon
the potato, and probably also upon tobacco. Its most common color is
leek green, From this it varies to lighter yellowish green, and on the
other hand to various shades of darker brownish and blackish green, In
other instances the green color wholly vanishes, and the worm is pale or deep
amber brown, blackish brown, purplish black or pure black. In these
brown and black varieties the head sometimes retains its normal green
color, but is usually the same color with the body. The dots upon the
skin and the oblique stripes along the sides are very often light yellow
instead of white; and where the ground color of the worm is dark brown
or black, these markings are always yellow, or sometimes pale pink red.
The breathing pores are black, but sometimes dark red or dull yellow,
and are surrounded by a ring of white or pale blue, which is usually
inclosed in a second ring which is sometimes brown, sometimes black.
The curved tail-like horn, so far as my observation goes, is the only part
which is constant in its color, this being always black.

The Pura or chrysalis is of an oval form, its opposite sides nearly
parallel through most of its length, and tapering at each end. It is four
times as long as thick, its length being
two to two and a half inches. It is of
a chestnut’ brown color, paler in some
places and blackish in others. The
anterior end is irreguiarly narrowed and
at its apex is prolonged into a remarka-
bly long cylindrical tongue-case the thickness of a coarse knitting-needle,
which projects downward and is curved backward at a distance of nearly
a fourth of an inch from the surface of the breast, becoming straight
through the last half of its length and reaching half the length of the
body. It is thickened and bluntly rounded at its end, which slightly
touches the surface of the body and is firmly soldered thereto. It is
evenly ribbed transversely, appearing as though the enclosed tongue were
divided into a number of short joints like the antennze, and along its
outer and its inner sides are two elevated lines extending its whole
length. The wing-sheaths are smooth and glossy, with faint elevated
lines marking the veins of the inclosed wings. They are firmly soldered

Tobacco-worm Pupa.

11

TOBACCO-WORM. KILLED BY INTERNAL PARASITES. THEIR HABITS.

to the body, and reach two-thirds of its length, and interposed between
them at their ends is a single pair of the leg-sheaths, which exactly equal
them in length. Along their lower edges are the antenne-sheaths, regu-
larly marked with transverse impressed lines, and tapering to a very acute
point on each side of the end of the tongue-case. The rings of the body
are closely and confluently punctured on their anterior sides and show
numerous transverse irregular scratches and fine wrinkles towards their
posterior edges. The breathing pores form a row of oval impressions
along each side, each having two acutely elevated lines and between them
a narrow elliptic cleft. On the back at the base of the abdomen is a
smooth black transverse ridge interrupted in its middle. The three short
rings at the hind end are rapidly narrowed, forming a conical point having
at its tip two small thorn-like points, one larger than the other.

We come in the next place to consider the natural enemies and destroy-
ers which restrain this insect from becoming excessively multiplied and
numerous. Large and vigorous as this tobacco-worm is, enveloped in such
a tough, leathery skin, and jerking its body about with the force and spite-
fulness it does when anything molests it, we should scarcely suppose any
other creature would care to encounter it. And yet it finds its mortal foe
in a little four winged fly, scarcely a thousandth part of its size. It is truly
wonderful that such a pigmy as is this fly is able to attack and destroy
such an elephant as is this worm. The fly alights upon the worm, and with
the short sting or ovipositor with which it is furnished pierces its skin and
inserts a minute egg in the puncture. It continues to repeat this opera-
tion at one point and another upon the back and sides of the worm, until
its whole stock of eggs, amounting to a hundred or more, is exhausted.
These eggs hatch minute maggots, which distribute themselves all through
the body of the worm, feeding upon its fatty substance, but without attack-
ing any of its vital parts. And thus the worm continues industriously to
feed and elaborate nourishment for feasting and pampering these greedy
parasites which are luxuriously rioting within it. Ifa worm which is thus
infested be cut into, it appears to be everywhere filled with these little fat
maggots. When they have got their growth they gnaw out through the
skin, but instead of dropping to the ground and there secreting themselves
as they would be expected to do, they still cling to the unfortunate worm,
each maggot spinning for itself a little oval white cocoon, one end of which
it fastens to the skin of the worm at the orifice where it has issued from
it. Thus the worm comes to present the remarkable spectacle of being
clothed, as it were, with a hundred or more of these cocoons, resembling
little white seeds like kernels of rice adhering to and in places wholly cov-
ering its back and sides. I have counted one hundred and twenty-four of
these cocoons upon a single worm, and a still larger number will probably
be found in some instances.

These parasitic cocoons are miik white and of a regular oval form, 0.15
long and 0.06 broad. Their walls are no thicker than thin writing paper
but are very dense and firm. Their surface is minutely uneven, with a few
loose, wrinkled threads at one end, whereby they are held to the skin of

12

TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE DESCRIBED. ITS HEAD. iTS BODY.
the worm, yet so slightly that they are liable to be detached by the slight=
est force, some of them falling off. sometimes, merely from the motions of
the worm.

When these parasites issue from it the worm has become so weakened
and exhausted that it ceases feeding and moving about, and in about three
days afterwards all traces of its vitality have vanished. The multitude of
minute hooks with which the soles of its pro-legs are furnished, however,
continue to hold the dead worm to the stalk of the plant, with its head
hanging downwarks and its body shrunken and flaccid from the evapora-
tion of its fluids, until some agitation of the plant by the winds or other
violence detaches it and it falls to the ground.

In the meantime the parasites change to pupee, and after remaining in
the cocoons seven days they come out from them in their perfect form, The
flies are black, with clear transparent wings, and legs of a bright tawny
yellow color, the hue of bees-wax, with the hind feet and the tips of the
hind shanks dusky. They belong to the order Hymenorrera, and to that
group of the Ichneumon-flies, which in works of science have been termed
Ichneumonides adsciti or the family Braconipnm. Several of the species of
this family present the singular character of having the eyes pubescent,
numerous fine short erect hairs arising from their surface. These pertain
to a particular genus which has received the name Microgaster, from two
Greek words, equivalent to our English term “small-bellied’’ It is to this
genus that these parasites of the Tobacco-worm belong. And they were
described by Mr. Say, in a posthumous paper which was published in the
year 1835, in the Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. 1, p. 262, under
the name Microgaster congregata or the Congregated Microgaster, in allu-
sion to their young being found together in such numbers upon a single
worm.

The Topacco-worm Parasite, Iicrogaster congregata, is of a coal black
color and 0.14 long when living. After death it contracts in drying and is
then scarcely 0.12 in length, and the male is a size smaller, not exceeding
0.10. Its head is spherioidal, or of a flattened globular form, with the an-
tennx inserted in the middle of the front side. The anteune are coarse,
thread-like, and longer than the body in the male, shorter in the female.
They are composed of about seventeen joints so closely connected that their
articulations are difficult to perceive, The joints gradually become slightly
shorter and less thick as they approach the tips. The palpi and jaws are
white. The eyes are distant from each other on the sides of the head, and
in a strong Feht their surface is seen to be closely bearded over with mi-
nute short hairs. Between them on the crown the eyelets or ocelli appear
as three small glassy dots placed at the corners of a triangle. The thorax
is the broadest part of the body. It is egg-shaped, its surface minutely
and closely punctured, and back of the middle it is crossed by a deep groove.
The abdomen is oblong oval, and about the same length as the thorax. It
is smooth and shining, except the two first segments which are rough from
obscure shallow punctures, with an elevated longitudinal line in the middle,
On its underside the three first segments are pale yellow, with a dusky

13

TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE DESCRIBED. ITS WINGS.

spot on the middle of each, that on the third segment being large, and as
the sutures contract in drying these spots become united. At its tip the
abdomen in the female is compressed and vertically truncated, with the
sting forming a conspicuous projecting point at the lower end of the trun-
cation. In the male the tip is rounded and without any projecting point,
though when living it may sometimes be seen to protrude two styles or
slender cylindrical processes pointed at their tips, and between these a
thicker process from the apex of which a fine bristle is occasionally thrust
out. The legs are bright tawny yellow, becoming more dull and pale in the
dried specimen. The hind feet and tips of the hind shanks are smoky or
blackish. The hind thighs are also blackish at their tips, and frequently
show a dusky line along their upper sides, extending nearly to the base.
The wings are hyaline, glassy and iridescent. The forward pair have the
stigma appearing as a large, opake, triangular, brownish black spot on
their outer side slightly beyond the middle. The rib or marginal vein is thick
and brownish black, becoming paler brown towards its base. The basal
portion of the wing is traversed by two pale longitudinal veins, which
are parallel, the outer one straight, the inner one curved towards its
base. The outer vein sends off a long and nearly straight branch obliquely
outward and backward to the anterior end of the stigma, this branch
bounding the discoidal and the first cubital cells on their fore sides. The
discoidal cell is triangular, with the vein on its inner side brown and angu-
larly bent at one-third and again at two-thirds of its length, giving off at
each of these angles a short oblique veinlet, the first one of which is brown
and the other colorless. The first cubital cell is of the same size with the
discoidal, and is irregularly six-sided, the anterior and the inner sides being
quite short; and the veinlet bounding this cell posteriorly is thick and
brownish black, the inner half of its length being oblique and the outer
half transverse, ending in the inner angle of the stigma. Beyond this,
traversing the apical third of the wing are three longitudinal veins, which
are very slender and colorless. The middle one of these veins is abruptly
thickened and blackish brown for a very short distance at its base, this
thickened portion forming, with the oblique inner end of the veinlet last
described, two of the sides of the small triangular cellule which is common
in the wings of the insects of this genus and family, but the short veinlet
which should complete the enclosure of this cellule on its hind side, is
wholly wanting. :

Mr. Say is wholly silent respecting the interesting habits of this insect,
merely remarking that he obtained eighty-four of the flies from the larva
of a Sphinx in the month of June. As I have had the flies come from the
cocoons in July and also in September, it is probable that they are abroad
upon the wing during the whole summer season, actively searching for
suitable worms to inoculate with their eggs. As will be seen from a state-
ment in one of the following pages, this parasite does not appear to be
limited to the tobacco-worm, but preys upon the larvee of other species of
Sphinx also. And some of our other species of Microgaster have the same
habit of fastening their cocoons to the larve from which they respectively

14

TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE’S COCOONS MISTAKEN FOR EGGS. ITS RAPID INCREASE.
issue. It is notrare, therefore, to meet with a worm which is thus burthened
and shackled; and they are justly regarded as great curiosities. Correspond-
ents have frequently sent me examples of this kind; some of them suppos-
ing in the fullest confidence that the little cocoons adhering to the back
of the worm were eggs which the worm had laid, thus demonstrating, as
it was thought, that the statements made in these Reports were erroneous,
that it is only in their perfect and never in their larva state that insects
produce eggs. This is an error into which every one who is not acquainted
with insects and their wonderful habits and transformations will be very
apt to fall, the shape, color and size of these cocoons being so much like
eggs which a large worm like this might be expected to generate. And it
shows in a strong light how important it is that our population should be
correctly informed and measurably intelligent in this science. For a person
‘destroying one of these worms will be particularly careful to also destroy
all these supposed eggs; deeming that in each one of them he in effect
destroys another worm; instead of which he hereby protects and insures
the upgrowth of another worm—thus doing the very thing which he is aim-
ing to prevent.

Of the hundred flies which are bred from one of these Ichneumonized
tobacco-worms, we may assume that fifty at least will on an average be
females, to destroy fifty more worms. We thus see what efficient agents
these insects are in checking the increase of this moth, and what an
important service they hereby render us. Indeed, when we recur to the
fact that these parasites attain their growth in a space of time so very
much shorter than does the tobacco-worm, whereby there is probably two
generations of them to one of the latter, it will appear that the parasites
issuing from a single Ichneumeonized worm will suffice to destroy two
thousand and five hundred other worms within the time that one brood of
these worms is growing up to maturity. They would therefore speedily
exterminate these worms from existence, were they permitted to go on
multiplying themselves without any check. And they are so well secreted
and protected that there would seem to be little risk of their being dis-
covered and destroyed by any enemy. For during their larva state, when
they are soft and tender and without feet or any other means of defence or
escape, they are lodged within the body of the tobacco-worm where they
are secure from harm; and when they issue therefrom they immediately
enclose themselves in tough paper-like cocoons, in which they lie hid until
they have acquired wings wherewith to fly away from any danger which
menaces them. Thus they would seem to be protected and safe from
injury. Yet the artifice of enclosing themselves in cocoons fails te procure
them immunity. Another minute insect has been created and endowed
with the sagacity to discover them in the little pods in which they hide
themselves, and there this creature metes out to them the same treatment
which the tobacco-worm receives from them. Thus the tobacco-worm
does not die unavenged. The lingering, miserable death which it has suf-
fered, its enemies, as if by an act of retributive justice, are doomed to
undergo in their turn,

15

TOBACCO-WORM. A DESTROYER OF THE PARASITE DISCOVERED.

On one occasion, when I was contemplating one of the tobacco-worms
which I met with covered over with parasitic cocoons, I noticed a very
small fly wandering about among the cocoons. My first thought was that
this fly was probably one of the Microgaster parasites which had just then
come from some one of these cocoons ; but the query soon arose in my mind,
whether it might not be an enemy, stinging the cocoons to destroy their
inmates in the same manner they had destroyed the tobacco-worm. Its
very small size did not enable the eye to discover whether it really was
one of the Microgaster flies. I was so fortunate as to succeed in enclosing
it in a small vial, and then upon examining it with a magnifier, I became
assured it had not come from the cocoons, for I perceived it pertained to a
different group of parasites from that to which the Microgaster genus
belongs. But how could the highly interesting and important point be
ascertained, whether it actually was a destroyer of the inmates of these
cocoons? With the hope of obtaining further light upon this subject a
portion of the stalk of the plant with the tobacco-worm adhering to it
was cut off and enclosed in a glass jar. On the fifth day thereafter, two
Microgaster flies made their appearance in the jar, and the worm now
being dead and beginning to become putrid, the cocoons were all removed
from its surface and enclosed in a vial. It was feared that this slight vio-
lence to them had destroyed their inmates, as day after day now elapsed
and no more flies came from them. But, three months later, in December,
they being kept in a warm room, a dozen flies were discovered, wandering
around in this vial; and for some weeks after, others continued to come
forth from the cocoons. And these proved to be identical with the single
fly which had been captured among these cocoons so long a time before.
It was therefore evident that that fly was the parent of these which were
now issuing from the cocoons ; and so industrious had that little creature
been, that it had punctured and dropped one of its eggs into all save two
of the cocoons, which were more than a hundred in number; and these
two, it is probable, would not have escaped, if the fly had not been inter-
rupted and taken away from its work.

These destroyers of the insect which destroys the tobacco-worm are very
small four-winged flies of a shining dark green color, with pale yellowish
legs and white feet. They belong to the order Hymenoptera and the family
Cuatcipips, and are closely related to the Hessian fly parasite, Semiotel-
lus destructor, figured in my Seventh Report, plate 3, fig. 1, which figure
will also serve to represent this insect in almost every particular. It per-
tains to the genus Pleromalus, a name derived from two Greek words,
meaning bad wings, the wings in these insects being nearly destitute of
ribs or veins. As they, by destroying the parasite of the tobacco-worm,
cause that worm to be more numerous and hereby more injurious to. the
tobacco, and as they will often occur lurking about this plant in search of the
cocoons upon which to bestow their eggs, they may not inappropriately
be named the Tobacco Pteromalus. All the flies which came from the
cocoons were females, from which the following description is drawn,

The Topacco Preromatus (Pleromalus Tabacum), is one-tenth of an inch

16

TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE’S DESTROYER DESCRIBED.
long to the end of its body, and is of a dark or bottle green color with a
brassy reflection, and finely shagreened upon the head and thorax. The
head is large and placed transversely, about three times as broad as it is
long, convex in front and concave at its base. Viewed in front it is nearly
circular, with a large oval eye slightly protruding upon each side, of a
dull red color fading to brown after death. On the crown three ocelli or
eyelets appear as glassy dots placed at the corners of a triangle. The
jaws are yellow, their ends brown, with four minute teeth. The palpi or
feelers are dull white. The antennz are inserted in the middle of thegface
‘and when turned backward reach about half the length of the thorax.
They become a little thicker towards their tips, and are of a brown color
with the long basal joint dull pale yellow, and are clothed with a short.
incumbent beard. They are composed apparently of nine joints, the first
joint being long and smooth, and forming .an angle with the remaining
joints. The second joint is the smallest of the series, being but little
longer than thick and obconic in its form. The third joint is thrice as long
and nearly thrice as thick as the preceding, and has the shape of a pear,
the contracted portion of its base being formed of two rings or small joints
which are rarely perceptible even in the live specimen when highly magni-
fied, except these organs be put upon the stretch. The fourth and fol-
lowing joints are a third shorter than the foregoing, and are nearly equal
and square in their outline, each successive joint very slightly increasing
in thickness and diminishing in length. The last joint is about thrice as
long as the one preceding it, of an oval or sub-ovate form, rounded at its
base and bluntly pointed at its apex, and is probably composed as in the
other species of this genus of three joints compactly united together.
The thorax scarcely equals the head in width and is egg-shaped and thrice
as long as wide. Oneach shoulder is a slightly impressed line extending
obliquely backward and inward. The abdomen is a third shorter than the
thorax, and in the live insect surpasses it in thickness, is egg-shaped and
convex with its tip acute pointed. When dried it scarcely equals the
thorax in thickness, and becomes strongly concave on the back and trian-
gular when viewed from one side. It is smooth, polished and sparkling,
of a green black color, the middle segments each with a broad purple
black band visible in particular reflections of the light. Beneath it is black
and at the tip shows some fine impressed longitudinal lines forming the
edges of the groove in which the sting is inclosed. The legs are slender,
pale wax yellow, with the feet and ends of the shanks dull white, the hips
of the hind legs being stout and black, with their outer faces green blue
and their tips pale yellow. The feet are five-jointed and dusky at their
tips. The wings are transparent and reach slightly beyond the tip of the
abdomen when at rest. The anterior ones are broad and evenly rounded
at their ends, and have, near the outer margin, a thick brown rib or sub-
costal vein extending more than a third of their length and then uniting
with the margin and terminating some distance forward of the tip, after
sending off ashort straight stigmal branch which is thickened at its end, with
its apex notched. Towards the inner margin an exceedingly fine longitu-

17

TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE AND ITS DESTROYER. THEIR DIFFERENT MOTIONS.
dinal vein is perceptible, which, near its middle, gives off a branch running
almost to the inner hind end of the wing. The hind wings are much
smaller and without veins, except a brown subcostal one, which extends
into the outer margin and abruptly ends a little beyond the middle.

All the examples of this species, which I have obtained from cocoons upon
the Tobacco-worm, have been females. The last of August, 1862, I received
from Dr. Allen of Saratoga Springs, a larva of the Sphinx Kalmice to which
thirty-six cocoons were adhering. And the middle of July, the following
year, H. Markham, Esq., of Stony Brook, Long Island, sent me the same
larva, similarly infested. It may here be incidently observed that both
these gentlemen met with these larvee upon the leaves of the grape-vine.
As I have repeatedly observed it, in different years, upon the lilac, the
leaves of which are certainly its usual food, the interesting query arises,
whether, when it is infested internally with parasites, they do not cause a
morbid appetite in the worm, whereby it ceases to relish its natural
food and comes to crave the leaves of the grape in place of those
of the lilac? Flies were obtained from more than half the cocoons
upon the first mentioned worm, and these being all of one species, I
supposed they were probably the true parasites of the Lilac-worm. But
I now find on comparing them, that they are identical with this species
which is now under consideration. It thus appears that the cocoons ad-
hering to the Lilac-worm had been formed by a species of Microgaster,
probably this same species which infests the Tobacco-worm, and that the
flies I obtained were its parasites and consequently were protectors instead
of Gestroyers of the Lilac-worm. The cocoons from Mr. Markham, might
perhaps have given more light upon this subject, and I now regret that, when
they came to hand, supposing they would only produce the same flies which
I had examined the preceding summer, I felt that it would be a waste of
time to attend to the rearing of their inmates.

Of the flies obtained from the Lilac-worm, four were males, whereby it
appears that this sex differs from the females above described, in the fol-
lowing particulars: Ist, their color is lighter and more bright, being bril-
liant metallic green, when dried becoming blue green; 2d, their antennee
are tarnished yellow, longer, and not at all thickened toward the tips,
their joints being cylindric and a third longer than thick, with the last _
joint egg-shaped and but little longer than its predecessor; 3d, the abdo-
men is flattened oval and rounding at its tip, with a large translucent pale
yellow spot rear the base; 4th, ‘inp legs are paler and pure yellow without
any mixture of orange or tawny.

One who is acquainted with this insect and the Microgaster fly, will
readily distinguish them by their motions, notwithstanding their smallness
and similarity in size. The Microgaster is very brisk and active in its
movements, running about with agility and flying away if any danger
menaces it. This insect on the othcr hand, appears tame and sedate, walk-
ing around slowly, and as if with deliberation as to what it is doing; and
if any annoyance approaches it, to escape therefrom it gives a slight skip,
throwing itself about an inch, and repeating this leap again and again if

pursued, it being not at all aichined to take wing.
2

~

18

TOBACCO-WORM. HAS A SECOND PARASITE. REMEDIES.

And after these flies have left their cocoons, it is readily told by the
appearance of each cocoon, whether it is a Microgaster or a Pteromalus
fly which has come out from it. The Microgaster, by which all the cocoons
are constructed, makes an opening for its escape in a more neat and
artistic manner than does its destroyer. When it passes from its pupa
state and awakens to life in its perfect form, it finds itself closely pent up
within its narrow cell —so closely that about the only motion it is able to
make is to turn its head from side to side. And it discovers that by grasp-
ing with its jaws the wall of its cell, it is hereby able to gradually roll
itself over in its bed. And now, with the minute sharp teeth at the ends
of its jaws, it cuts a slit transversely through the wall of its cell, lengthen-
ing this slit more and more as it gradually turns itself around. Thus it
cuts the end of its cocoon smoothly off in the form of a little lid, a few
ursevered fibres being left on one side, which serve as a hinge to hold
this lid in its place. The inclosed fly then pressing its head against this
lid raises it up and crawls forth from its prison. Thus the evacuated
cocoon has its end smoothly cut off, with the severed portion usually ad-
hering to it. The Pteromalus fly, on the other hand, being a size smaller,
is able to move about and can probably turn itself around inside of the
cocoon. And to make its escape it gnaws a hole through the side near
one end, of sufficient size for its body to pass through; this hole in different
instances being round, oval, or irregular, and its edges ragged and uneven.

In addition to the eggs of the Microgaster, which are inserted under the
skin of the Tobacco-worm and thus are not visible externally, I have
occasionally met with a worm having one or more eggs glued upon its
surface, usually placed in a crease of the skin to render the attachment to
it more secure. These eggs are about three-hundreths of an inch long
and a third as thick, oval, white, smooth and glossy like enamel. Within
them a minute soft white worm or maggot becomes formed, which is
hatched by gnawing through the shell of the egg at one end, and as it is
coming out, it sinks itself downward through the skin of the worm and into
its body, a blackish dot upon the skin near the end of the empty egg
marking the point where it has entered. Its history I have not been able
to trace further than this. The facts show it to be another parasite des-
troying the Tobacco worm, and that it is probably a two-winged fly belong-
to the order Diprera.

The remedies for this insect are remaining to be spoken of. But as we
have had no personal experience in combatting it, it will not be expected
that we dwell upon this branch of the subject at any length.

The leaves of the potato and tomato being of no value, the presence of
this worm upon them is wholly diregarded, as its limited numbers never
consume the foliage to such an extent as to perceptibly diminish the growth
of the tubers in the one or of the fruit in the other of the plants. But
with the tobacco it is very different. The whole value of this plant depends
upon its leaves; coasequently every morsel which this worm consumes from
them is a loss, and if the leaves are much eaten the loss is great. The
utmost vigilance is therefore required to save the tobacco from injury from

went

19

POTATO-BEETLE. ITS LOCALITIES. ITS NAME.

this enemy. At the South, where they have had long and sore experience
with the twin sister of our insect, the only remedy found to be effectual is
searching out and destroying the worms. This ‘‘ worming” of the tobacco
fields, as it is termed, is an indispensable measure, forming a regular part
of the tobacco culture. After the leaves are grown to a sufficient size for
the worm to begin to feed upon them, not a day is suffered to pass without
examining them. The leaves are so large and so very tender and brittle,
except for a short period at mid-day, when they become pliant from being
somewhat wilted by the heat of the sun, that the utmost care is requisite
in passing among them to avoid breaking and tearing them. Notwith-
standing the closest scrutiny some of the worms will be overlooked, at
each search which is made. Moreover, new moths are coming out and
depositing their eggs day after day, whereby a succession of worms are
appearing. Thus it becomes necessary to repeat this examination daily,
searching out and destroying every worm while it is yet young and small.

When these ugly looking worms first began to be noticed upon the toma-
toes in our gardens, some sensitive persons were much alarmed with fears
that they were poisonous and would render the fruit deletericus if they
happened to touch or crawl over it. But such fears are wholly groundless,
The sharp, thorn-like tail of this worm, however, if it chances to penetrate
the skin, inflicts a painful wound. This is the only thing to be guarded
against.

10, Tey-Livep Porato-seetie, Doryphora 10-lineata, Say. (Coleoptera. Chry-
scmelide.) Plate 4, figure 6.

Eating the leaves of the potato in immense numbers through the whole summer ; a thick,
oval beetle nearly half an inch long, and of a pale yellow color with five black stripes on each
wing cover, accompanied by its thick-bodied, worm-like larva of a pale yellow color with rows
of black dots, and six legs upon its breast and a pro-leg at the pointed end of its body.

In connection with the foregoing potato-worm, some account may here
be given of anew enemy which, within the past two or three years, has
fallen upon the potato-vines in numerous places all over the Northwestern
States, stripping them of every vestige of their foliage and eating the stalks
also, and hereby arresting the formation and growth of the tubers. Speci-
mens of this insect are being frequently sent me for information respecting
it, whereby I am able to present a description of it in its different stages
of life and several important facts respecting it. Fortunately for us, it is
not an inhabitant of our State, being found only in the valley of the Mis-
sissippi at a distance from our borders.

This insect was first discovered as being common on the Upper Missouri,
by Mr. Say, when accompanying Long’s Exploring Expediton to the Rocky
Mountains. He met with it upon the Arkansas river also. In 1823, he
published a description of it (Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences,
vol. iii., p. 453), naming it from the number of the stripes upon its wing-
covers, Doryphora 10-lineata or the Ten-lined Doryphora—this genus having
been separated from the old genus Chrysomela, by Illiger, to include a
number of South American species which have the middle portion of the

20

POTATO-BEETLE. ACCOUNTS OF ITS DESTRUCTIVENESS.

breast prolonged into a horn-like point, wherefore the name ; Doryphorus
being a Greek word meaning a spear-bearer, and particularly memorable
as the name of one of the most celebrated statues of the sculptor Polycle-
tus. But our insect and afew other species of this genus are destitute of
the sharp, thorny point alluded to. Chevrolat, in Dejean’s Catalogue, pro-
posed to form these into a distinct genus, named Polygramma—i. e., many-
lined. But this step has not been approved of by subsequent authors.

The year after Say described this insect, the distinguished German ento-
mologist Germar also published it, under the name Dyrophora junceta,
which, of course, will be merely a synonym of the anterior name.

The first notice of this as being an injurious insect, appears In the Prairie
Farmer of August 29th, 1861 (vol. viii., p. 116), in a letter from J. Edger-
ton, of Gravity, Iowa, saying that ‘‘ they made their appearance upon the
vines as soon as the potatoes were out of the ground, and there being a
cold, wet spell of weather about that time, they devoured them as fast as
they were up.” They appeared most fond of the Prince Albert variety,
doing but little injury to several other kinds. Several generations appeared
to grow up in the course of the summer. The specimens were sent t9
D. Thomas, Esq., of Marion, Williamson county, III., who in reply announces
them to be the species above named, and says that this same insect ‘‘is
found in abundance in Southern Illinois ; but so far I have only discovered
it on worthless weeds and low shrubs ; and here it has not proved injurious
to useful vegetation,” wherefore he thinks it is only accidental that it has
fallen upon the potatoes in Mr. Edgerton’s vicinity, and that some pecu-
liarity of the plants, state of the atmosphere, or other influence may next
year cause it te forsake the potato and take up its residence upon some
other plant.

The next year, Thomas Murphy, of Atchison, Kansas, sent a number of
the beetles to the Valley Farmer, with an accompanying letter, published
in that periodical July, 1862 (vol. xiv., p. 209), saying that in August, 1861,
“ soon after a heavy shower of rain, these bugs suddenly made their appear-
ance in large numbers on the potato vines. They were so numerous that
in many instances they would almost cover the whole vine. It is no exag-
eeration when I tell you that we have often, in a very short time, gathered
as many as two bushels of them. When the cold weather set in they dis-
appeared. Early this spring I was setting out some apple trees, and away
down in the hard yellow clay, I found these bugs apparently dead, but put
them in the sun and they immediately came to life. They have again (May
22) made their appearance in large numbers in my garden. Last year
they first ate up everything green on the potato vines, then commenced on
the tomatoes, and so on, on everything green. Strange to say, they trouble
no one else.’ Some of the beetles had been forwarded to Benj. D. Walsh,
Ksq., of Rock Island, Illinois, who communicates their name and a good
figure, but is singularly unfortunate, not to say erroneous, in several of
his statements made in connection with this subject ; for instance, that the
New York weevil is “an exclusively western species,” ‘‘ Mr. Murphy’s
account is the first on record of this beetle occurring in gardens in such

21

POTATO-BEETLE. ITS EGGS AND LARVA DESCRIBED.

mumbers as to be injurious,” &c. He regards the fact of Mr. Murphy’s
finding the beetles under ground in the spring, as full proof that this insect
always goes under ground to pass its pupa state; overlooking the additional
fact that Mr. M. found these beetles lying dormant and apparently dead,
which indicates that no warmth had at that time penetrated the earth
sufficient te change them from their pupa to their perfect state. Mr. M’s.
recital of his observations would seem to make it plain that it is in their
perfect, not in their pupa state that they hibernate. He says the beetles
were immensely numerous; but when the cold weather set in they disap-
peared, Karly the next spring he again found them away down in the
hard yellow clay, apparently dead but immediately reviving when exposed
to the sun. And finally, May 22d, they had again made their appearance
abroad in Jarge numbers. Everything thus appears to show that these
beetles remain abroad in full force until a frosty night cuts off their food
and chilis them, whereupon they hasten into any crack they can find in the
hard clay soil, or wnder any log or stone lying on the surface. They there
become dormant and thus repose through the winter, and with the warmth
of returning spring revive and issue from their retreats.

Specimens of this beetle, its eggs and larve, we received first from John
S. Bowen, Elkhorn city, Nebraska, in May, 1863. Similar remittances have
since come to hand from different parts of Iowa. A correspondent at Web-
ster City writes that these insects are “ very voracious feeders, not only
denuding the vines of every vestige of leaf, but also devouring the stalks.
Killing them seems to do no good, they breed so rapidly; and as they fly
through the air, they would soon be re-established were they all extermina-
ted from a field. It is now August ist, and few if any tubers are yet set
upon by my potatoes, though the planting was very early.” And from New
Sharon we are told that some have been discouraged from planting pota-
toes, the ravages of this potato-bug have been so great.

The beetles though sent from such a great distance have in every
instance reached me alive, whilst the larve accompanying them have
been nearly or quite dead, except in two or three instances. The eggs
also uniformly hatch and the young from them perish before they come to
hand. Kept in confinement, the beetles usually live so long as they are
supplied with food. I have thus kept an individual captured in May,
until the frosts of autumn destroyed my supply of potato and tomato
leaves. And beetles newly born, if gradually exposed to the cold, will
undoubtedly become torpid and dormant, and lying in this state through
the winter will revive and return to activity with the return of warm
weather.

The female in confinement drops her eggs in little clusters upon the
leaves on which she has been feeding. The eggs are bright yellow,
smooth and glossy, 0,06 long and 0,035 broad, of an oval form with rounded
ends.

The Larva, when full grown is over a half inch in length and half as
thick, being thickest back of the middle and tapering to a point at its tip.
At is a thick plump grub, strongly arched above, and when viewed on one

22

POTATO-BEETLE. THE BEETLE DESCRIBED.

side its outline is nearly the form of a crescent. The head is small and
much \narrower than the fore part of the body, of a flattened spherical
form. Its mouth is furnished with short conical, jointed feelers and
large jaws which are blunt at their ends, with little sharp teeth like those
of a saw. Immediately above the mouth on each side cf the head is a
small conical and jointed projection which is the antenna. The thorax
has a large transverse space on the top of its first ring, of a firmer and
somewhat coriaceous texture and broadly margined with black on its hind
side and with dusky at each end. The abdomen is the thickest part of the
body und is distinctly divided into nine segments. It is very plump and
rounded, but flattened on its underside. It gradually tapers posteriorly
into a conical point the apex of which is blunt and serves as a pro-leg,
two small vesicular processes on its lower side at the end serving as feet.
There are six legs, placed anteriorly, upon-the breast, each leg being com-
posed of three joints and ending in a small claw. The larva is of a pale
yellow color, often slightly dusky or freckeled cn the back with minute
blackish dots, and along each side are two rows of large black dots, those
of the upper row larger, seven in number, not being ‘continued upon the
thoracic or the last abdominal rings, each dot having a small breathing
pore in its centre. The head is black and shining, and more or less mottled
on the face with dull yellowish. ‘The neck or first ring has a black band
near its hind edge; the second ring has also either a short black band or
two black dots, whilst the third ring usually shows two small black dots
on its back. On the narrow tip of the body are two black bands, the
anterior one having at its end on each side a small black dot, and beyond
this a Jarge biack dot which is the last one of the lower row of dots along
the sides. On the next ring forward is a transverse row of six small
equidistant black dots, in addition to the two large dots on each side,
whereof the upper one is the last of the upper lateral row, and the lower
the penultimate one of the lower row. The legs are black; and often along
the middle of the body, on the underside, is a row of transverse black spots
or clouds, and also a row of small black dots upon each side.

The Berrie or mature insect is 0,40 long and 0,25 thick, the female being
slightly larger. It is of a regular oval form, very convex above and flat
beneath, of a hard crustaceous texture, smooth and shining, of a bright
straw color, the head and thorax being sometimes tawny yellow, which is
the color of the underside; and is dotted and marked with black. After
death its colors often fade, becoming more dull and dark. The head is near-
ly spherical and little more than half the width of the thorax, into which
it is sunk nearly or quite to the eyes. It is sprinkled over with fine
punctures and shows on the front an impressed medial line, and on each
side of this a wider shallow indentation. On the crown is a triangular
black spot. The nose piece or clypeus, occupying the space between the
antennz, is nearly semicircular and placed transversely, and is coarsely
and closely punctured. The jaws are coarsely punctured, black at their
tips, and have a slender black line along their outer edge. The tips of
the palpt or feelers are dark brown. The antenne reach nearly to the base

23

POTATO-BEETLE. THE BEETLE DESCRIBED. REMEDIES.

of the thorax when turned backward. They are gradually thickened
towards their tips, twelve-jointed, the last joint being quite small, conical,
and sunk into the apex of the preceding joint. The five first joints are pale
yellow or tawny, obovate, the basal one largest, and the third one longer than
either of the other three. The remaining joints are black and somewhat globn-
lar. The thorax is transverse, twice as broad as long, broadly notched in front
for receiving the head, and its hind side convex. Five punctures are scat-
tered over its surface, these punctures becoming more numerous and coarser
towards the outer sides. It is commonly margined all round by a slender
black line. In the centre are two oblong black spots which diverge for-
ward. Back of these is a small black dot which is often wanting; and on
each side are about six small black spots; one towards the base, of an oval
form and placed transversely; and two round ones, nearly upon a line for-
ward of this, the three being equidistant from each other; two towards
the hind angle, placed close together and often united, the inner one of
these being largest of the six; and the sixth one placed half way between
the two last and the forward angle. The scutel isdark brown. The wing-
covers have the sutural edge dark brown, and five equidistant black stripes
on each. The first or inner stripe is shortest and tapers backward as it
gradually approaches the suture, terminating in a very long slender point
a considerable space forward of the apex. The two next stripes are broadest
and are united at their tips, beyond which they are sometimes prolonged
into the end of the fourth stripe. The outer stripe is the most slender and
longest of all, placed on the outer margin but terminating before it attains
the apex. The wing covers are also punctured in rows extending along
the margin of the stripes, the rows being uneven and the middle ones
double; and the outer interspace is also punctured. * Beneath, the sockets of
the legs are black or edged with black, and on the hind breast is a trans-
verse black spot on each side, forward of the insertion of the hind legs,
and also a black stripe on the outer margin of the hind breast, outside of
which on the parapleura is a triangular black spot. The abdomen is finely
punctured on the disk and base, and has a short black band on the middle
of the anterior edge of each segment except the last, and near the outer
margin a row of six black dots. The legs are tawny yellow, with the hips
at least of the hind pair black and also the knees and feet.

Say mentions a variety of this beetle having the wing-covers white.
This is probably always their color when recently disclosed from the pupa.

What will be the best remedies for this new insect enemy can only be
ascertained by experiments with it in its native haunts when its habits
are more fully observed. We know not whether turkeys and other fowls
relish these beetles, whereby they may be employed to aid in lessening
their numbers, The large size of the beetles and their sluggish move-
ments favor their being readily noticed and picked from off the vines.
But their numbers are so immense as to dishearten from attempts to thus
get rid of them unless some way can be devised to gather them rapidly
in large quantities. The method that has been resorted to with some suc-
cess against the blistering flies where they have been numerous. on the

24

GARDEN TIGER-MOTH. ITS AMERICAN HISTORY. MOTH DESCRIBED.
potato vines, may be of utility, namely, holding a pan with an inch or
two of water in it, under the vines here and there, and shaking and knock-
ing the insects off into it, the water holding them from esvaping until a
quantity are gathered, when they may be emptied into a bag, and another
quantity gathered. They can be killed by immersing the bag in boiling
water, and its contents may then be fed to the swine.

11. Garven Ticer-morn, Arctia Caja, Linneus. (Lepidoptera. Arctiide )

Eating the leaves of lettuce, strawberries, &e., a large thick-bodied caterpillar nearly two
inches long, of a black color witha row of white shining dots along each side and thickly clothed
with long soft hairs which are black upon the back and red on the neck and sides; enclosing
itself in a thin pale brown cocoon from which towards the end of July comes a large beautiful
brown moth with white spots and many irregular stripes crossing its fore wings, its hind wings
ochre yellow with about four large round blue black spots.

This truly elegant insect, named Caja or the bride by Linneus, and the
caterpillar of which is popularly called the Garden Tiger in England, is
abundant all over Europe, but as yet is quite rare in this country. Several
specimens were met with in our State at Trenton Falls, by Mr. Edward
Doubleday, in 1837. A male has long been in my colleetion, which I think
was taken the same year at Canajoharie and presented me by Wm. S.
Robertson; and when closing these pages for the printer, on the evening
of July 27th, 1864, a female came in at the open door of my study, flying
slowly around with a rustling of its wings which indicated it to be some
moth of a large size and heavy body.

One of Mr. Doubleday’s specimens was presented to Dr. Harris, by whom,
first in the year 1841, in his Report to the Legislature on the Insects of
Massachusetts Injurious to Vegetation, it was described as a new species
under the name Arctia Americana, although Godart had previously regarded
it as identical with the Caja, in which opinion Boisduval and other French
naturalists have since continned to concur. In Agassiz’ Lake Superior,
Dr. Harris gives a more full description and a figure of this moth, in
which he says the white spots and rivulets on its fore wings are the same
as in the European insect, but that it is distinguished from that by the
white band margining the thorax in front. But in a European specimen
which I have before me, this white band is present and conspicuous as in
the American examples, except that it is less broad; which is a cireum-
stance of no importance in an insect subject to such great variations in its
colors and marks. Thus we are left without any grounds for regarding
this as different from the European species.

This moth measures from two and a half to three inches across its wings
when they are extended, the males being a trifle smaller than the females.
It is of a rich brown color, the hue of burnt coffee, with some of its parts
bright ochre yellow or orange red, and it is variegated with spots and
marks of milk white, crimson red, dark blue and black. But it varies
astonishingly in its colors and marks. I draw the following description
of the spots and markings chiefly from the living specimen before me, in
which they appear to occur in their most usual and perfect condition,

’ The head is brown. The palpi or feelers form two conical points project-

25

GARDEN TIGER*MOTH. ITS ASTONISHING VARIETIES OF COLOR,

ing obliquely forward and downward from the lower front part of the head,
of a darker brown with longer and jess dense hairs of a red color along
their underside and around the mouth. Coiled up between them is the
spiral tongue, of a white color, and only equaling them in length when
extended, The antenne reach a third of the length of the wings. They
resemble slender, tapering threads, white, their tips brown, their basal
joint red, and a brown stripe alung their underside. _ In the males they are
pectinated, each joint sending off two short brown branches, The thorax
is globular and brown, with a broad white band in front, occupying the
base of the collar and extending backward across the shoulders and uniting
with the white stripe or spot upon the middle of the base of the wings.
The collar is edged all around with crimson red, forming a slender margin
along the lower edge of the white band and on each side crossing this band
and forming a narrow arched band above it. The base of the thorax is
also slenderly margined with red, which color widens on each side into a
small spot. The sides of the thorax are pale brown, with a pencil of red
hairs in the axilla of the wings. The abdomen is bright ochre yellow with
a row of brownish black spots along the middle of the back, the spots
transverse, four or five in number, the hind ones largest. The underside
is pale brown with the edges of the segments yellow. The wings are
brown, slightly pale towards their hind ends. Their base is white, which
color near the middie of each wing is prolonged backwards into a long
acute point, forward of which are two long egg-shaped brown spots placed
side by side, and on the outer edge are two larger brown spots slightly
parted from each other by a curved line, with a fifth spot on the inner edge.
Towards the middle of each wing on the outer edge are two large white
spots of an irregularly triangular form. Beyond these, crossing the wing’
transversely from the outer margin to the inner angle is a wavy white band
which is thickened at its ends. From the middle of this band a curved
branch extends forward and inward to the inner margin; and from the
same point on the opposite side of the band another branch extends back-
ward, nearly to the hind edge, when it abruptly turns outward and forward
and then outward and backward, reaching the outer margin of the wing
forward of the tip. In the closed wings these markings upon their hind
part are observed to be beautifully symmetrical, having some resemblance
to the Greek letter omega with a bar placed horizontally across its middle.
The lower wings are deep ochre yellow with four large round blackish blue
spots having a black margin, whereof three are situated in a row forward
of the hind margin, the inner one of these being the smaliest, and the
fourth one, which is slightly transverse, is placed forward of the centre.
The undersides are colored and marked similarly but much more pale and
dim. The legs are brown with the thighs crimson except upon their under-
sides, and the shanks and hind feet are yellow on their undersides.

In respect to its coiors and spots, this moth is truly protean, varying to
an extent which is most astonishing. Thus the fore wings are sometimes
black instead of brown, with all vestiges of the white spots and rivulets
upon them vanished. In other instances they are of the same bright yellow

26

GARDEN TIGER-MOTH. ITS EGGS. CATERPILLARS DESCRIBED. THE COCOON AND CHRYSALIS,
or red color with the hind wings, with a few brown spots upon them; and
in still other instances they are white with but a faint tinge of yellow. The
hind wings sometimes have their spots diminished and nearly obliterated.
In other instances these spots are increased in number and in size; again,
they become confluent, forming two broad black bands across the wing;
and finally, the whole wing is black and without spots. The Arctia Par-
thenos it cannot be doubted is one of the latter varieties of this species, in-
termediate between the banded winged and black winged varieties. It is
erroneously credited to Kirby in the Smithsonian Catalogue of Lepidoptera.
It was described and figured by Dr. Harris, in Agassiz’ Lake Superior, and
is essentially distinguished as having the base and inner margin of its
hind, wings black with the remaining portion yellow crossed by a broad
black band.

The female moth above mentioned dropped seven hundred and forty-four
eges in the course of four days after her capture. Being so prolific it 1s
evident this insect would very soon become as abundant in our country as
it is in Hurope if it were not checked in its increase. It must be that
nearly all the caterpillars of each generation are destroyed, probably by
birds. Judging from the proceedings of the female when in confinement,
her eggs are laid upon the surface of leaves and firmly glued thereto in
clusters of from fifty to one hundred, the eggs in each cluster being placed
for the most partin contact with each other inregular rows. The eggs are
quite small, being about 0.034 in diameter. They are globular, shining,
white, with a large faint spot on their summit of a watery appearance.

The caterpillars which come from these eggs grow to about two inches
in length and have athick cylindrical body which authors describe as being
of a deep black color, densely covered with long soft hairs which arise in
bundles from elevated warts. These hairs are of a bright red color on the
three first rings and along the sides, and on the rest of the body are black
with their ends gray. The warts from which the red hairs arise are of a
bluish gray color; those from which the black ones come are blackish brown.
Three of these warts of a blue color and placed in a row one above the
other on each side of each ring are most obvious to the eye. The breathing
pores form a row of shining white dots along each side. The head is shin-
ing black; the underside and feet are blackish brown, From all the other
caterpillars of our country this is particularly distinguished by the three
biue warts on each side of each segment, and the conspicuous row of white
dots along each side of the body. As it approaches maturity, however, its
unusually large size will alone suffice to point it out. It would appear to
be this creature to which Hiawatha is represented to refer, in Longfellow’s
much admired poem, as

‘eThe mighty caterpillar
Way-muk-kwana, with the bear skin,
King of all the caterpillars!’

When it is fully grown it encloses itself in a grayish brown cocoon of a
soft closely woven texture, intermixed with the hairs of its body. In this
it changes to achrysalis, having the form of an elongated egg, of a shining
black color with the sutures yellowish brown and the pointed end two-lobed

27
CUT-WORMS. THE INJURIES THEY DO.

and studded with little rust-colored points. The insect remains in the co-
coon from eighteen to twenty days and then comes forth in its perfect state.

Like other caterpillars of the group to which it belongs, this is a general
feeder, subsisting upon low herbaceous plants of almost every kind, and
on a pinch feeding also npon the leaves of trees and shrubs. An incident
related by Duponchel (Hist. Nat. des Chenilles), shows how able it is to
sustain itself upon any substance of a vegetable nature which is sufficiently
soft for it to masticate. Having forgotten one of these caterpillars which
he had wrapped up in a paper envelope,and inclosed in a wooden box, he
afterwards discovered it had nourished itself upon the paper, as was pro-
ven by the dry pellets of excrement in the box, and had after this com-
pleted its transformations, producing a moth which was a dwarf in its size
but with very brigkt coiors. Some curious facts are reported, showing the
colors of this moth to vary according to the quality of the food on which
the caterpillar is nourished. Thus if it be fed upon lettuce or other vege-
tation of a similar succulent nature, the colors of the moth are more dim
and pale than when it is reared on substances which are less watery. The
German collectors are said to obtain the varicty having the under wings
black by forcing the caterpillars to feed exclusively upon the leaves of the
walnut. Some of the French, however, are stated to have tried this with-
out success. It may be that some concurring atmospherical influences,
some peculiarity of the season, is also necessary to insure the particular
result. The species certainly presents a most interesting subject for the
experiments of amateurs.

12, Corn Cur-Worm, Agrotis nigricans, Linn., Var. Maizi. (Lepidoptera.
Noctuide.) Plate 4, fig. 2, 3.

In June, severing the young Indian corn and other plants, half an inch above the ground, by
night, and by day hiding itself slightly under the surface; a thick, cylindrical, gray worm an
inch and a quarter long, with rather faint, paler and darker stripes, the top of its neck shining
black with three whitish stripes.

The insects from which our farmers experienced the greatest vexation
and injury the past season (1863), were the Cut-worms—the same worms
which are sometimes called corn-grubs, and which in English agricultural
works are termed surface grubs or surface caterpillars. The name Cut-
worm, however, is most commonly given to them in this country, both in
print and in common conversation, and appears to be the most appropriate
and best term by which to designate them, having allusion as it does to a
habit which is peculiar to these worms, namely, that of cutting off tender
young plants as smoothly as though it was done with a keen-edged knife.

These Cut-worms are among the most important injurious insects of our
country. It is mostly in our fields of Indian corn and in our gardens that
their depredations are noticed. “They are so common as to occasion some
losses almost every year; whilst every few years they make , their appear-
ance in such numbers as to nearly or quite ruin the corn-fields, obliging the
proprietors to plant their ground a second and even a third time, or to re-
plow it and sow it with a different crop. Thus, in consequence of the pre-

28

CUT-WORMS. EARLY NOTICES AND RECORDS OF THEIR INJURIES.
sence of this worm in our country, the labor of the husbandman is fre
quently doubled to obtain from his land a crop either materially diminished
in amount or of a less valuable kind from that which he would be able to
harvest were it not for this enemy. The attention of the farmers of our
State was this past season prominently directed to the rearing of flax, and

a breadth of land was given to this crop far exceeding what has ever
kor been assigned to it. But soon after the young flax appeared above .
the ground, these Cut-worms began their depredations, feeding upon and
wholly consuming the small tender plants to such an extent that many
fields had large patches in them which were eaten perfectly bare, whilst
in others the crop was totally destroyed.

Many of our injurious insects are new pests which have but recently
been observed in our country. But these Cut-worms appear always to
have' been here, depredating upon and despoiling the cultivated crops in
centuries gone by, the same that they are now doing. Before European
settlers arrived upon this continent, the cornfields of the Indians are said
to have been ravaged at times by these worms, this being of all others a
disaster to them of which they were most fearful, and one which they felt
themselves wholly powerless to avert, their only resort for protecting their
ficlds from this calamity being that indicated in the lines of the poet:

‘¢ Draw a magic circle round them,

So that neither blight nor mildew, >
Neither burrowing worm nor insect,

Shall pass o’er the magic circle.”’

And this is well known to have been a casualty of frequent occurrence all
along since the soil of our country has been cultivated by civilized men.
In those diaries which have occasionally been kept in different parts of our
land by persons who have been curious to preserve a record of local inci-
dents of interest, we are sure to meet ever and anon with the statement,
“Tndian corn was this year greatly injured by the worms,” ‘The season
was wet and cold, and the worms made extensive ravages on the corn,”
and other entries of the same purport. From one of these sources we learn
that a century ago there had been a distressing drouth in 1761, followed
by an unusually long and severe winter and a late spring. ‘“ When at last
the corn was planted, millions of worms appeared to eat it up, and the
ground must be planted again and again. Thus many fields were utterly
ruined.” (Flint’s Second Report, Mass. Board of Agriculture, p. 40.) It,
however, may have been the Wire-worm which occasioned at least a por-
tion of the destruction here related, for tisually when one of these worms is
numerous the other is so likewise. It is unnecessary to mention other years
in which we have little more than the mere fact stated that these corn
worms were very injurious,

In addition to such manuscript mementoes, the published allusions to these
pests date far back. Upwards of seventy years ago, when the old Agri-
cultural Society of onr State was first organized, in a circular which the
Society issued, containing inquiries upon different topics on which informa-
tion was solicited, the first query respecting insects was, ‘‘Is there any

29

CUT-WORMS. HAVE NEVER YET BEEN INVESTIGATED.
way of destroying the grubs in corn and flax ?” No answer to this inquiry,
of sufficient importance for publication, was received.

But, although these Cut-worms have always been such a formidable foe
in this country, against which the cultivators of the soil have had to con-
tend, they have not, down to the present day, been subjected to any care-
ful scientific examination. It was formerly supposed they were all of but
one kind, one species of insect. In our day it has been ascertained that
they are of several different kinds, and that they are bred from a particular
group or family of millers or moths, of a dark color, which fly about in the
night time and remain at rest and hid from our observation during the day—
most of them belonging to the genus named Agrotis by naturalists. But
the observations which have been made upon these Cut-worms have been
so hasty and superficial, that, when we see one of these worms cutting off
the young corn in our fields or the cabbage plants in our gardens, we are
unable to give it its exact name; we are unable to say what particular
species of miller or moth it is which has produced that worm.

All that has yet been done towards a scientific investigation of this sub-
ject may be narrated in a few words.

Upwards of forty years ago, Mr. Brace, of Litchfield, Ct., in a short arti-
cle published in the first volume of Silliman’s Journal, gave what he evi-
dently regarded as a sufficient elucidation of this matter. It appears that
in a patch of ground planted with cabbages, where the worms had been
numerous, he found their pupze to be common, lying a few inches below the
surface, just after the worms had disappeared. From some of these pupz
he obtained the miller or moth. In the article alluded to, he merely des-
cribes this miller as being the insect which produces the Cut-worm, naming
it the Phalena devastator or the Devastating miller. As he supposed all the
Cut-worms were of one kind, he gives no description of the worm from
which this miller is produced, And thus it remains unknown to this day
what the characters and appearance of the worm are which belongs to this
miller which Mr. Brace described.

Some ten years after this, Dr. Harris, one season, gathered a number of
full grown Cut-worms from different situations, to breed the moths from
them; but what is most surprising, he took no notes of the differences in
the appearance of these worms. He obtained from them four different
moths in addition to the one which Mr. Brace had previously obtained.
These he names and describes, but is unable to give any account of the
worms which belong to either one of these species.

In the Second Report which I presented to this Society, I gave very exact
figures of the miller which Mr, Brace described, and of two others of the
most common millers of our country belonging to the same group; and I
also described five of the Cut-worms which I had noticed as being common
kinds in our cornfields and gardens. Finally, in my Third Report I was
able to give an account of one of our Cut-worms, and the moth which was
raised from it. ,

And this is the posture in which this subject now stands. Seven of the
moths or millers of our country, which produce Cut-worms, have been named

30

CUT-WORMS. OUR ILL SUCCESS IN REARING THEM.
and described. But only one of them is known to us in its larva state.
We also know that at least five other Cut-worms, in addition to this one,
are formidable enemies to us, depredating every year, more or less, upon
the young plants in our fields and gardens, but we know not the species to
which they respectively pertain, and consequently are unable to distinguish
either of them definitely, by giving to it its correct name.

I have for a great many years regarded these Cut-worms as a most
important subject requiring to be elucidated. And accordingly, almost
every year, upon meeting with some of these worms, I have written in my
notes a particular description of them, and have endeavored to feed and
rear them to their perfect state, but without success. They are very intol-
erant of confinement, especially when they are not grown to their full size.
Upon discovering that they are imprisoned, they lose all relish for food,
and become intent on one thing only, namely, to find some orifice in their
prison walls through which to escape. Accordingly, when the shades of
evening arrive, they come out from the earth in the box or pot in which
they are placed, and crawl hurriedly and anxiously around and around, the
whole night long, as I have. found on going to them with a light. The
vegetables transplanted into the box for them te feed upon remain un-
touched. In this manner, they in a few nights wear their lives away, and
are fuund lying stark and stiff on tke surface of the dirt of their cage.
From the experience I have had, I regard them as among the most difficult
insects which I have ever taken in hand to feed and rear from their larva
to their perfect state.

It had accordingly become evident to me that a suitable knowledge of
these Cut-worms could never be gained in the manner I had attempted—
by casual observations made at moments snatched from other investiga-
tions. It was only by making them the leading subjects of examination;
devoting to them ample time and care and vigilance; studying them as they
were growing up in the fields and gardens; watching them from day to
day, there, in their natural haunts, until they became fully matured and
were done feeding, and then placing them in cages to complete their trans-
formations and reveal to us what they are in their perfect states; I say, it
had become evident to me that it was only in this manner that the requisite
knowledge of these creatures could be obtained, to prepare such an exact
history of them as their importance and the advanced state of science at
this day demand.

I have, therefore, for several years, had it in contemplation, when a
season oecurred in which these worms were numerous, to devote my chief
attention to them. And accordingly, on becoming aware last May, that
these worms would be quite common in my vicinity, I resolved to make
them the subjects of special investigation.

And I now proceed to give a summary account of these insects and their
habits, and the progress which the researches of the past season has ena-
bled us to make towards a more full and exact knowledge of them.

It is in midsummer, mostly in the month of July, that the moths or mil-
lers come abroad and lay the eggs from which the Cut-worms are bred,

31

CUT-WORMS. YOUNG WORMS IN AUTUMN. FALL PLOWING TO DESTROY THEM.

The eggs are dropped at the surface of the ground, around the roots of
grass and other herbage. The worms hatch and feed during the axtumn,
coming abroad by night and eating the most tender vegetation which they
are able to find, and during the daytime withdrawing themselves under
the ground to hide from birds and other enemies, and feeding upon the
roots of the vegetation which they there meet with. Grass appears to be
their favorite food, and its young, tender blades and rootlets furnish most
of these worms their subsistence through the first stages of their lives.
During the autumn the earth is so profusely covered with vegetation and
these worms are so small that no notice is taken of them or the trifling
amount of herbage which they then consume. They become about half
grown when the cold and frosty nights of autumn arrive, whereby they
are no longer able to come out to feed. They then sink themselves deeper
than usual into the ground, going down to a depth of three or four inches;
and there, each worm, by turning around and around in the same spot,
forms for itself a little cavity in which to lie during the winter; and it
there goes to sleep, and lies torpid and motionless as though it were dead.
The soil at the depth where these worms are lying very slowly and gradu-
ally becomes colder and colder as the winter comes on, and at length freez-
ing, these worms reposing in it are also frozen. And when the warmth of
spring returns, the ground thawing and becoming warm in the same
gradual manner, these worms slowly thaw and awake from their long sleep
and return again to life. The case is analogous to what occurs with our-
selves when we have a finger or a foot frozen. On coming into a warm
room, if we keep the frost-bitten part covered with snow or immersed in
ice-cold water, whereby it very slowly thaws and the circulation gently
and gradually returns to it, the part readily recovers; whereas, if instead
of this, we hold it to the fire and thaw it suddenly and abruptly, high in-
flammation and gangrene follows, and we lose the limb. And so, if these
Cut-worms lying in the ground should be suddenly frozen or thawed, it
would ke fatal to them.

This brings to our view au important measure which is much practiced
for the purpose of destroying these worms and securing the corn crop from
their depredations. Our farmers quite generally endeavor to break up
their planting ground in the autumn, rather than in the spring, under the
idea that they thereby disturb these worms in their winter quarters and
expose them to the cold and frost, whereby a considerable portion of them
are destroyed. And I believe it is the general experience of our farmers
that corn planted upon ground which has been thus broken up in the
autumn is less liable to be injured by these worms than where it has been
broken up in the spring. But these worms, in common with all other
insects, continue to be active in autumn so long as the weather remains
warm. It is not till they feel the chill of the autumn frosts that they retire
into their winter quarters. Therefore, if the ground be broken up early in
autumn, when the weather is still warm and the worms are in’ full life and
activity, it can be of little, if any avail, for the purpose intended, as they
will readily crawl into the ground to the depth which they require for their

82

CUT-WORMS. THEIR HABIT OF SEVERING YOUNG PLANTS.

protection. In order that this fall plowing should be efficacious, it is
obvious it should be deferred until near the close of the season, when the
worms have withdrawn themselves downwards and are lying torpid and
inactive in their winter retreat. Ifthe turf under which they are reposing
be then turned up to the surface, they will be incapable of crawling away
into any new quarters, and the sudden freezings by night and thawings by
day to which they wiil be alternately exposed, we are confident must destroy
a large portion of them.

When the spring has returned and we are engaged in making our gar-
dens, a Cut-worm is occasionally turned up to our view in digging and
working in the earth there; and if grass has been permitted to grow and
form a turf around the roots of currant bushes or elsewhere, upon digging
up and rooting out this grass, we are quite sure of finding a number of
these worms nestled among it, indicating to us that grass more than any-
thing else furnishes them with the covert and food which they desire.

Although we thus find these Cut-worms lying in the soil of the garden
early in May, it is not until the close of that month and the beginning of
June that they begin to attract our notice by the injury they do in our
gardens and cornfields. It is when they are grown to about two-thirds of
their full size that they commence the work which renders them so perni-
cious to us,—that of severing the young, tender plants. Previous to this,
during all the first period of their lives, as has already been stated, they lie
concealed under the ground during the day time, feeding there upon the
roots of plants, and only venture out by night to feed upon the green vege-
tation above ground. Although in England they are called surface grubs,
I discover they are not restrained to the surface of the ground, but mount
up the stems of young cabbages and beans and eat portions of their leaves.
But, about the commencement of June, the nights have become so short and
the days so long, and the worms are now grown to such a size and their
appetites have become so ravenous, that they are forced to a most singular
change of their habits. The insipid roots of plants fail to yield them the
amount of nourishment they require during the eighteen hours of daylight.
They must either stay out to feed upon green herbage during the daytime,
or they must, so to speak, set their wits to work to devise some way by
which they can get this herbage down under the ground so that they can
there feed upon it. We accordingly see thém adopting the curious expedi-
ent of cutting off tender young plants in order to draw them into the
ground, whereby they may feed upon them during the long hours of the
day. Is it not wonderful, that such sluggish, stupid looking creatures as
these worms are, should have the intelligence to perform such a feat as
this—cutting off the plant, to enable them to get the end of it down into
the ground, so that they may cosily lie there and feed upon it in safety—
gradually drawing it in, more and more, until by the close of the day the
whole of the plant and its leaves are consumed; a feat strikingly analogous
to that for which the beaver is so renowned, cutting down small trees and
drawing and swimming them away to build a dam with them. Surely we
should admire this loathsome-looking worm for such a skillful performance,

33

CUT-W@RMS. THE STRIPED WORM FOLLOWED BY THE LARGER YELLOW-HEADED WORM.
were it not that it is this very act which renders this creature such a pest,
such a nuisance to us!

As to the kinds of plants which these worms thus sever to feed upon
them, they appear to have but little if any preferences. They relish every-
thing that is young and tender and succulent. Thus they attack the corn,
the flax, the potato stalks in our fields, and in our gardens the cabbage
plants and beans, cucumber and melon plants, beets and parsnips, and also
the red-rood and several other weeds. Nor are they limited to herbaceous
plants. Where a sucker starts up from the root of a tree, while it is yet
young and tender it is liable to be severed, if one of these worms chances
to find it.

They appear to have no discrimination in their taste, but relish equally
well the most acrid and bitter plants, with those which are mild and aro-
matic. Thus the onion stalks in our gardens are about as liable to be cut
off as any other plants; and I have known the acrid smart-weed to be
severed by them. The past summer, I set out in my garden a few tobacco
plants, that I might notice what insects would come upon this filthy weed;
and within a few days after, one of these Cut-worms gave me a very palpa-
ble reminder that he would not tax me for cabbages and beans if I would
only furnish him with what tobacco he wanted to chew. Ihave known a
piece of writing paper to be partially consumed by one of these worms en-
closed in a box where it became pressed with hunger. And where several
worms are enclosed together in a box of dirt, over night, without any food,
it is a common occurrence for the larger ones to devour the smaller ones.

The past season, it was upon the 22d of May, in a hot bed, that | first no-
ticed a plant severed by a Cut-worm; and the query at once arose, how
could this worm get into such a close and secure place as that was? The
loam forming the top of the bed had been obtained from the garden; and
it was evident this worm must have been lying in the soil there, and had
been brought from thence, in this soil, when the bed was being made. And
the warmth of the bed had quickened the growth of this worm and brought
it forward in advance of all its fellows.

Three days later, the first bean plant in the garden was found cut off by
another of these worms; and from that time they continued to become more
common until about the first of June, when they were out in their full force,
both in the fields and in the gardens. At first I supposed the worms in the
cornfields were different from those in the gardéns. But the more I exam-
ined and compared them, the more assured I became that they were all of
one species, although they varied greatly, some being pale and others dark,
and some having very distinct stripes, whilst others had them scarcely per-
ceptible. It was the same species which I named the Striped Cut-worm, in
the Transactions of 1855, p.545. It continued out in full force, depredating
everywhere in the fields of flax and corn and in gardens, for a period of three
weeks, when, the worms having got their growth, began to be less nume-
rous, and had all disappeared at the end of the month.

Just as this worm was about to vanish, another one, larger and more
voracious, came out to occupy its place and continue the work of destruc-

3

34

CUT-WORMS. DIFFERENT OPERATIONS OF THE TWO WORMS.

tion in the fields, none of them being met with in the gardens. It was on
the 20th of June that, in examining a cornfield, I first noticed this second
worm, lying under the sods, it being of a white or pale smoky color with a
bright tawny yellow head, and the same kind which I have heretofore
named the Yellow-headed Cut-worm. This cornfield had been broken up
just before planting, and the roots of the grass were still juicy, succulent
and unwithered, at least in all the larger masses of turf; and this worm
evidently preferred these grass-roots to the young corn; for on examining
a multitude of the hills of corn in which one or more of the young plants
had been cut off, it was invariably the Striped worm first mentioned, which
was discovered there; not one of these Yellow-headed worms had as yet
molested the corn. Five days afterwards, this same cornfield was again
visited. The weather in the interval had been warm and dry, whereby the
grass-roots in the clumps of turf had become dry and withered, unadapted
for feeding the worms any longer. And now on examining where the
blades of young corn had been newly cut off, the mischief was discovered
to have been done in nearly half the instances by this Yellow-headed worm,
which was found lying in the earth contiguous to the severed plant. Thus,
it was sufficiently demonstrated that so long as it could find any roots of
grass for its nourishment, this worm did not molest the corn. Therefore
the corn remained unattacked by it, until about the date specified, namely,
the 25th of June. A few years before, however, I found this same Yellow-
headed Cut-worm making severe havoc in a cornfield at the very beginning
of June—there probably being no juicy roots of grass in this field, on
which it was able to sustain itself. Having the fact thus established, that
these worms will not trouble the corn, so long as they are able to find grass:
in the field on which to nourish themselves, it becomes an important ques-
tion to be considered, whether, after all, it may not be better to break up
our corn ground in the spring than in the fall; so that hereby, a portion of
the roots of the turf may remain sufficiently fresh and unwithered to
feed these Cut-worms and hereby keep them back from falling upon the
corn, This is a difficult subject to determine; and it is only by repeated
observations, carefully made, that it can be satisfactorily settled.

The operations of these two worms were so very different that upon see-
ing a severed plant it was readily told which worm it was that had cut it
off, and would be found lying in the ground by its side. The smaller
Striped worm, which first appeared, cut off the plants half an inch or an
inch above the surface of the ground; and many of the plants, being sever-
ed at this height, survive the injury, new leaves pushing up from the
centre of the stump. Instances were noticed, in which the worm had cut
off the plant below the lower leaf, which leaf remaining, green and thrifty,
the plant would thereby be vigorously sustained while new leaves were
putting forth from its centre. The larger Yellow-headed worm, on the other
hand, severs the plants almost an inch below the surface of the ground,
whereby they are effectually killed in every instance. This worm also
lies deeper in the ground than the other, it being usually met with about
two inches below the surface, whilst the smaller worm only goes down

35

CUT-WORMS. THEIR PUPA STATE. STRIPED CUT-WORM DESCRIBED.
sufficiently to hide itself from view. It is also much more irritable, more
ferocious and combative. If two of them are enclosed in a box together,
and one crowds against or attempts to crawl over the other, it spitefully
resents this freedom and snappishly tries to bite the intruder.

These Yellow-headed worms continued to cut off the corn for more than
a week after the others had disappeared, remaining out till about the close
of the first week in July.

When the Cut-worm is done feeding it crawls down into the earth to the
depth of three or four inches, where it is not liable to be disturbed by any
other worms inhabiting the superficial soil. It here doubles itself together
in the shape of a horse-shoe, and by turning around and around in the
same spot, presses the soil outward irom around it, compacting it into a
thin brittle kind of shell which the wet from any showers of rain
will not penetrate, forming a large oval cavity with a smooth sur-
face on its inside. In this cavity the worm lies motionless and_ be-
comes contracted in size and of a stiff and more firm consistency. The
forward part of its body beccmes swollen, more and more, till at
length the skin bursts open upon the back and the hard shining yellow
stell of the pupa begins to protrude from this opening. By slight sudden
starts or shrugs, the skin is gradually thrown off and remains in a shrivel-
led mass at the end of the insect, which is now in its pupa form, without
any mouth or feet, its shape being that of an elongated egg of a shining
chestnut yellow color, thrice as long as thick, but only half as long as was
the full grown worm. This pupa or chrysalis lies quiet and motionless in
its oval cell under the ground for about four weeks, when its outer shell-
like covering cracks open upon the fore part of the back, and the moth or
perfect insect crowds itself out from it, and upward through the loose earth
to the surface. The first moth from the Striped Cut-worm presented itself
to us this year on the evening of the sixth of July, and upon the evening
of the tenth the same moths had become exceedingly numerous. The
worms had been so diversified in the depth of their color ‘and the distinct-
ness of their stripes, that I had confidently expected to see a similar diver-
sity in the moths which they produced. I was, therefore, greatly surprised
to find the latter remarkably uniform, no differences occurring to my obser-
vation this season that were susceptible of being described as varieties.

Now that we have ascertained the moth of this, one of our most common
Cut-worms, it is important that we give the most accurate description of
it and of the worm from which it comes, that we are able to draw up from
the numerous specimens we have examined, and thus place this species on
record so distinctly that it may ever hereafter be readily recognized.

The Striped Cut-worm, as we have heretofore termed it, is a cylindrical
worm, usually about an inch in length when disturbed beside the severed
plants in our gardens and corn fields, and upwards of an inch and a quar-
ter when it is fully grown. Its ground color is dirty white or ash gray,
occasionally slightly tinged with yellowish; the top of its neck shining
black, with three white or pale longitudinal stripes; a whitish line along
the middle of its back between two dark ones; on each side three dark stripes

36

CUT-WORMS- MOTH OF THE STRIPED WORM DESCRIBED.

separated by two pale ones, whereof the lower oneis broader; often asome-
what giaucous white stripe below the lower dark one, and all the underside
below this dull white. This is the best concise general description of the
worm that I am able to give, the characters stated being sometimes quite
faint, but in most instances sufficiently plain and distinct. I proceed to
give a more full description of the several parts. The head is shining black,
with a white stripe in the middle, which stripe is forked, resembling an
inverted letter Y. The nose piece and upper lip are whitish, the former
being wrinkled or longitudinally striated, and the latter having a trans-
verse row of white bristles. The jaws are black and four-toothed. On
each side is usually a white spot, and in other instances the whole head is
more or less mottled with white, or is throughout of a tarnished white color
with only a dusty streak on each side of its base. The neck above is ‘of
the same shining black color and horny substance as the head, with a white
stripe in the middle, continuous with that upon the head, and a stripe on
each side, curving slightly outward at its hind end. The sides of the neck
are dull white, with ashort double blackish stripe across the middle. The
back is ash gray, this color forming a stripe along each side of the middle,
where are two dusky lines, and between them a whitish line of the same
thickness. ‘The sides are dark gray or of the same dusky shade as the two
lines on the middle of the back, this color being divided into three stripes
of equal width by two faint pale lines, the lower one broader and formed
of spots mottling the surface. These pale lines sometimes take on a glau-
cous white appearance, and sometimes adjoining the lower dusky stripe on
its underside is a third glaucous white stripe, which is broader than those
above it, and along its lower edge are the breathing pores, forming a row
of oval coal black dots. The underside, including all below the breathing
pores, is dull whitish, the legs being varied with smoky brown, and the
pro-legs having a ring of this color at their base.

The Morn is represented, plate 4, figure 2, with its wings spread, and
figure 3 as we usually see it when at rest and with its wings closed. It
measures 0.70 in length and 1.30 across its extended wings, and is of an ash
or dusky gray color, and distinguished principality by two coal black spots,
onenearly square, placed outside of the centre of the fore wings, and the other
nearly triangular, a little forward of it, a roundish nearly white spot sep-
arating them. Its head is gray, and its palpi or feelers are blackish upon
their outer side. These organs are held obliquely forward and upward and
are densely covered with erect hairy scales, giving them a short, thick
outline of a compressed cylindrical form, and cut off transversely at their
ends, with a small naked joint protruding therefrom, little longer than
thick, and scarcely a third of the thickness of the joint from which it pro-
jects. Coiled up between the palpi and slightly visible on their underside
is the long spiral tongue or trunk. The antenne are slender, thread-like,
but tapering towards their tips. They are simple in the females, and in
the male are toothed like a saw along their opposite sides, the teeth being
sharp and fringed with minute hairs at their tips. The thorax is the thickest
part of the body and is of a square form, as is very evident when the

37

CUT-WORMS. WINGS OF THE MOTH DESCRIBED.
wings arespread. It is gray, witha black band in front, edged on its hind
side with an ash gray one, paler than the ground; and on the shoulder at
the base of the fore wings is usually a small spot of dull pale yellow.
The abdomen is tapering and somewhat flattened, dusky grayish, paler
towards its base, its tip more blunt in the male than in the female and
covered with a brush of hairs. The legs are blackish gray and hairy on
their undersides, the spurs at the end of the middle and hind shanks being
black in their middle and white at each end. The feet are five-jointed, long
and tapering, the first joint much the longest and the following ones suc:
cessively shorter. They are gray, gradually passing into black at their
ends, each joint having a white ring at its tip. The wings in repose are
laid flat, one upon the other, in a horizontal position, sometimes so closed
together that their opposite sides are parallel, but oftener widening back-
ward (as represented in figure 8), and forming a broad shallow notch: at
their hind end. The fore wings vary in color from ash gray to dusky gray,
and sometimes have a tawny reddish reflection. Their outer edge is gray-
ish black, with irregular alternations of black spots having an ash gray
spot between them, and towards the tip are about three equidistant pale
gray dots. The costal area or narrow space between the outer edge and
the first longitudinal vein is pale ash gray, gradually becoming dull and
obscure beyond the middie. At the base, on the outer edge, are two black
spots or short transverse streaks, with a pale gray streak between them, and
opposite these, on the basal middle of the wing, are similar streaks placed
obliquely, which are frequently faded to a blackish cloud-like spot, with a
pale gray streak crossing its middie. Outside of the central part of the
wing are the stigmas, two large roundish pale gray spots, having a
square coal-black spot between them and a triangular one forward of
them. ‘Lhe anterior one of these stigmas is broad oval, almost circular,
and placed obliquely, with its outer end more towards the base of the
wing than is the innerend. It is of a uniform pale gray color, slightly
paler than any other part of the wing. Its edge is well defined by the
black color surrounding it, except at its outer end, where it is incom-
plete, being confluent with the ash gray color of the costal area.
The hinder stigma is kidney-shaped, being concave on its hind side,
and occupying this concavity is a pale gray spot or cloud, quite variable
in its size in different specimens, and frequently taking on a buff or cream
yellow tinge. This stigma is brownish or watered gray, becoming paler
along its anterior edge, its ends, particularly the inner one, being vague
and indefinite, blending with the adjacent coloring, sometimes so much so
that only its middle portion is distinct. Between these stigmas is a large
square spot of a coal-black color, occupying the whole space between the
two midveins of the wing, its fore and hind sides made concave by the
rotundity of the stigmas which bound it upon these sides Forward of the
anterior stigma is a second black spot of a somewhat triangular form, also
eccupying the whole space between the two midveins at this point. Onits
hind side it is concave and cut off obliquely by the obliquity of the stigma,
whereby it is prolonged along the inner vein, usually into a long acute

88

CUT-WORMS. DESCRIPTION OF THE WINGS CONTINUED.
point. Its anterior end is cut off, either transversely, obliquely or irregu-
larly, by a faint pale grey streak, which is a portion of the anterior or
extra-basal band, (See generalties preceding the description of the wings
of the Tobacco-worm moth). In the best specimens this pale streak is dis-
tinctly seen to be prolonged backwards along the outer side of the black
spot almost to the stigma, and then suddenly turning at a right angle, it
runs obliquely foward and outward in a straight line to the outer margin,
between the two small black spots which are here placed on the margin.
In the opposite direction this pale streak is also prolonged from the for-
ward end of the black triangular spot, inward and backward and curves
slightly foward to the inner longitudinal. vein, and beyond this, with
another similar curve, is extended to the inner edge of the wing, it being
margined on both sides by a black line, that along its hind side being
commonly more conspicuous. And a short distance back from this line,
equidistant between the inner midvein and the inner vein, may always be
seen a black dot or short dash, which is the extreme point of a black
stripe called the teliform stigma, which is common upon the wings of the
moths of this genus, but in this variety of this species is wholly wanting,
except this minute vestige of its apex. And also crossing this inner half
of the wing obliquely at about two-thirds of the distance from the base
to the hind edge are two other parallel blackish lines, representing the
post-medial band. The anterior one of these lines is irregularly wavy and
angular, and turns obliquely forward as it approaches the posterior stigma,
and appears to pass into the inner hind angle of the square black spot.
The posterior line, as traced from the inner edge of the wing, curves
slightly backward till it reaches a point a short distance back of the inner
end of the hind stigma, when it becomes nearly transverse, and then curves
foward and obliquely outward to the outer edge of the wing, ending in
the posterior one of the two black spots which are on the outer edge oppo-
site to the anterior side of the hind stigma. This line, in the middle of
the wing, is festooned or made up as it were of crescents united at their
ends, these ends projecting backwards and forming about four acute angu-
lar points; and sometimes this line is made more distinct by a faint pale
eray line bordering it on its hind side, at least in the concavities of the
crescents. But both these blackish lines are commonly quite faint and entire-
ly vanish in many specimens. Beyond this, a broad space on the hind bor-
der of the wing is darker colored and traversed by a whitish line, which
is wavy and often broken into a series of small irregular spots, these spots
sometimes haying larger black cloud-like spots adjoining them on the fore
side. Back of the outer end of this line the tip of the wing is occupied by
a triangular gray spot. The hind edge is faintly sinuated, with a series of
slender black crescents surmounting the sinuosities. The fringe is con-
color with the portion of the wing immediately forward of it. The hind
wings are smoky whitish, with a broad dusky hind border, dusky veins,
and an obscure dusky crescent near the centre. Their fringe is dull white
with a dusky band near its middle. On the underside they are clearer
white, with a broad, dusky hind border and sprinkled with dusky scales

39
CUT-WORMS. NAME OF THE MOTH. DESTROYER OF THE CUT-WORMS.

towards the outer side. The veins are not marked with dusky, except a
spot or short streak upon each of them, forming a transverse row forward
of the hind berder, which row becomes obsolete towards the inner edge
and towards the outer edge is confluent, forming a dusky band. The cen-
tral crescent is more distinct than on the upper side, and on the hind edge
is a row of slender black crescents. The fore wings are dusky, of the
same shade with the border of the hind pair, becoming slightly paler
towards their bases. They show an oblique black streak on the outer
edge between the middle and the tip, and immediately beyond this is a very
faint band crossing the wing parallel with the hind margin,

The description now given makes it apparent, I think, that this moth is
not essentially different from the species of Agrotis named nigricans by Lin-
neeus, which species we have upon this continent with the same varieties
described by authors as occurring in Europe. In this species the teliform
stigma is marked by two parallel lines connected by a rounded mark at
their ends. But in the examples which I bred from the Cut-worms of the
corn, and all those which I captured that season a mere dot was the only
remaining vestige of this stigma. Therefore to facilitate future references
to this particular variety of which I have here treated, it may be well to
separate it under a distinct name, which I have accordingly done.

The larger Yellow-headed Cut-worm which came out as this was disap-
pearing, produced as I expected, the same moth which was described in
my Third Report, under the name Hadena amputatrix, the Amputating bro-
cade moth.

Thus it was the larvee of these two insects which were so numerous and
did all the injury to our crops the past season, neither of these being the
species which Mr. Brace describes as the insect which produces the Cut-
worm. And it is therefore evident that in different years and at different
localities, it is sometimes one sometimes another of the insects of this
group which becomes multiplied and injurious to us; whereby it will require
a series of observations extending through several seasons to obtain a full
acquaintance with them.

Before leaving this subject I may advert to one of our most efficient na-
tural destroyers of these Cut-worms, which correspondents are occasionally
sending me, for information as to its name, its origin, &c. It is the larva
of a large black beetle, (Plate 4, fig. 4), having rows of round dots upon
its back resembling burnished gold, the brilliancy of which dots cause it
to be frequently noticed as it is wandering about in plowed fields and pas-
tures in search of food, the beetle as wellas its larva subsisting upon these
Cut-worms. It is the Bold Calosoma, Calosoma calidum as it is named in
scientific works, and pertains to the order Coteoprera and the family Cara-
BIDE.

Its larva (Plate 4, fig. 5,) is a flattened, black, worm-like creature,
having six legs inserted upon its breast, and a pair of sharp hook-like jaws
projecting in front of its head, giving it, in connection with the agility of
its movements, a very ferocious and formidable appearance. It is curious
to watch this little creature when it is upon a hunting excursion, in pursuit

40

CUT-WORMS. THEIR DESTROYER’S MODE OF KILLING THES.

of its prey. It wanders about over the plowed land, until it comes upon &
spot where it perceives the surface has been newly disturbed. This indi-
cates to it that a worm has probably crawled down into the ground at that
spot. It immediately thereupon roots down into this loosened dirt, and
disappears from view, the motion of the dirt indicating its movements,
as it pushes itself along. At times it lies perfectly still, to discover if any
worm is moving in the dirt anywheres near it. Now it is the habit of the
Cut-worm, the same as of most other worms, when any other creature ap-
proaches and disturbs it, to give at short intervals a sudden, spiteful jerk,
to menace and frighten away the intrader. But now, aware by the brisk
motion made in the dirt near it, of the proximity of its mortal foe, it
restrains itself from its wonted habit, ane lies as still as though it were
dead. It is only by some motion in the dirt, or by coming abruptly against
it with its head and feelers, that this destroyer can discover the worm, for
I have seen it draw the hind part of its body along the side of a worm
which was lying perfectly still, and crawl away, without being made
aware of the worm’s presence by touching it in this manner.

One of the most interesting and wonderful exhibitions of insect economy
which the world affords, is this Calosoma larva murdering a Cut-worm. The
larva it may be is young and less than half the size of the worm, but the lit-
tle hero never shrinks from the encounter. Upon discovering a worm he is
instantly on the alert, all vivacity and as if crazy with excitement. The worm
perhaps holds its bead bent down stiffly upon its breast. The larva hereupon
briskly roots and pushes the worm about and pinches it with its jaws,
whereby he gets it to throw back its bead, whereupon he instantly grasps
the worm by its throat, sinking his sharp jaws through the skin, and cling-
ing thereto with the grip and pertinacity of a bull dog. The worm mad-
dened by the pain, writhes and rolls over and over and thrashes his tor-
mentor furiously about to break him off from his hold; he coils his body like
a Boa constrictor tightly around him to pull him away: he bends himself
into a ring with a small orifice in the centre, and then briskly revolving,
draws him through and through this orifice to tear him off; but every
expedient of the poor worm fails. The larva clings to his grip upon the
worm’s throat, till the latter, exhausted by his violent struggles, gradually
relaxes his efforts, becomes more and more weak and powerless, and finally
succumbs to his fate. Having thus killed the worm the larva leisurely pro-
ceeds to feed upon it, biting two or three holes through the skin in differ-
ent places to suck out its contents. It is occupied three or four hours in
completing this work. And the larva becomes so gorged hereby that its
own skin is distended almost to bursting. It then crawls slightly under
ground, and there lies and sleeps off its surfeit, and then comes out and
wanders off in search of another meal of the same kind.

When this larva is small a single Cut-worm suffices it for one or two
days; but as it approaches maturity it devours one or two worms daily.

Al

BEE-KILLER. ANEW INSECT. ITS CLASSIFICATION AND NAMU.

13, Nepraska Bee-Ku.er, Zrupenea Apivora, new species. (Diptera.
Asilide.) Plate 4, fig. 7.

Killing the honey bee in Nebraska; a large slendet-bodied two-winged fly, an inch long.

Whilst we are occupied in closing this Report to place it in the printer’s
hands, July, 1864, a new insect comes under our examination, of such an
interesting character that we herewith present a figure of it, and the fol-
lowing account, the principal portion of which we have also communicated
to the Country Gentleman.

R. O. Thompson, Esq., Florist and Nurseryman, in a note dated Nursery
Hill, Otoe county, Nebraska, June 28th, 1864, says: ‘I send you to-day
four insects or animals that are very destructive to the honey bee, killing:
a great number of them, and also of the Rose bugs. What are they?
Many wish to know what this Bee-killer is. Is it the male or the female
that has the three-pronged sting ?”’

The specimens, two of each sex, laid between pledgets of cotton wool in
a small pasteboard box and forwarded by mail, cameto hand in good con-
dition, admitting of a very satisfactory examination. They are a large
two-winged fly, having a long and rather slender and tapering body, about an
inch in length, with small three-jointed antenne, the last joint being
shorter than the first, and giving out from its end, and not from its side,
a slender bristle. The ends of its feet are furnished on the underside with
two cushion-like soles, and the crown of its head is hollowed out or concave,
and in this hollow is seen three little glassy dots or eyelets. These charac-
ters show it to pertain to the order Diprera, and to the group which Lin-
neus a century ago separated as a gents, under the name Asus, but
which is now divided into several genera, forming the family Asilida.
On inspecting its wings we see the two veins which end one on eaclr side
of the tip of the wing are perfect and unbroken, and towards the middle of
the outer one they are connected together by a small veinlet or short
transverse vein. This indicates these flies to pertain to the genus named
Trupanea by Macquart.

About a half dozen species inhabiting the United States and pertaining
to this genus have been described by Wiedemann, Say, and others. This
Nebraska fly appears to be different from either of those, and I am, there-
fore, led to regard it as a new insect, hitherto unknown tothe world. And
a more appropriate name cannot be given it than that by which it is called
by Mr. Thompson and his neighbors, the Bee-killer or Trupanea Apivora.
The general definition of this species, or its brief essential characters will
be, that it is dull black with the head yellow, tlie fore body butternut brown,
the hind body on its underside and the legs pale dull yellow, the thighs
being black on their foresides, and it is coated over with hairs which are
gray in the female and grayish yellow in the male, the end of the body in the
latter sex having a conspicuous silvery white spot.

In this Asilus group of flies the species are separated from each other
by marks which are often very slight and obscure. It is, therefore, im-
portant that a detailed description of these Nebraska flies should here be

42

BEE-KILLER. DESCRIPTION OF THE INSKCT.
given, that they may not be confounded with any other species which may
be closely similar to them.

They measure to the end of the wings 0.85 to one inch, and to the end of
the body 0.95 to 1.15, the males being rather smaller than the females. The
head is short and broad, shaped like a plano-convex lens, flat on its hind
side and convex in front. Its summit or crown is deeply excavated, leav-
ing a vacant space between the upper part of the eyes, in the middle of
which excavation are the oceli or eyelets, appearing like three black glassy
dots placed at the corners of a triangle. The ground color of the head is
yellow. All the face below the antennve is covered with long hairs form-
ing a moustache of a light yellow color, with a tuft of short black bristles
at the mouth, and on each side are whiskers of a yellowish gray color,
The base of the head has a sort of collar formed of radiating gray hairs,
and behind the upper part of each eye is a row of black bristles. The eyes
are large and protuberant, occupying two-thirds of the surface of the head,
and are finely reticulated or divided into an immense number of minute
facets. The antenn are inserted at the anterior edge of the excavation
in the crown of the head. They are small, scarcely reaching to the base
of the head if turned backward. They are black and composed of three
joints, the first one longest and cylindric; the second shortest and obconic;
the third thickest and egg-shaped, its apex ending in a bristle which is
about equal to the antenna in length, and is slightly more slender towards
its tip, where it becomes a little thickened, The trunk or proboscis is as
long as the head, its end projecting out from the bristles of the face. It
appears like a long, tapering tube of a hard crustaceous texture, black and
shining, blunt at the end, with a fringe of hairs around the orifice. In
one specimen the tongue protrudes from the orifice in the end of the trunk,
sharp pointed and like the blade of a lancet in shape, hard, shining and
black. The thorax or fore body is the broadest part of the insect, and is of
a short oval form, with bluntly rounded ends. It is of a tarnished yellow-
ish brown or butternut color, with two faint gray stripes along the middle
of the back, alternating with three darker brown ones. It is bearded with
black hairs and posteriorly with long yellowish gray ones, which are inter-
spersed with black bristles. The abdomen or hind body is long, slender
and tapering from its base in the male, and is more broad and somewhat
flattened in the female. It is black above and covered with prostrate hairs,
which are dull yellow in the male and gray in the female. On the sides
and beneath the ground color is dull yellow in the male and gray in the
female, and clothed with gray hairs in both sexes. The two last segments,
the eighth and ninth, are conspicuously protruded, making two or three
more segments than are usually visible externally in insects. In the female
these segments taper to an acute point, and are black and shining. In the
male they appear like a cylindrical tube with a projecting valve under-
neath at the base, and are coated over with dull yellow hairs, and on the
upper side with silvery white ones, pressed to the surface and forming a
conspicuous oblong spot of this color, which is two-lobed or notched at its
ends. And in the dead specimens before me three bristle like processes

43

BEE-KILLER. LEGS AND WINGS DESCRIBED. DELIGHTS IN THE SUNSHINE.

ever a tenth of an inch in length, of a tawny yellow eolor, polished and
shining, project from the blunt end of the body. These are termed a three-
pronged sting in the above letter. But the magnifying glass shows they
are abruply cut off at their ends and do not taper to a sharp point capable
of piercing the human skin. he legs are long and stout and of a pale,
dull yellowish color. The thighs in the males are chestnut brown, and on
their anterior sides they are dull black in both sexes, the hind pair being
entirely black, except a stripe of dull yellowish along the under side. The
hind shanks also are frequently black on their anterior sides The legs
are covered with gray hairs and have several black bristles in rows running
lengthwise. In the males the four anterior shanks and feet have the hairs
yellow, and on the feet the bristles also are of this color. The wings are
long and narrow, and in repose are laid flat, one upon the other. They are
transparent, with a smoky tinge, and are perceptibly darker at their tips.
Their veins are black, except the parallel ones in the outer border, which
are dull yellowish brown. The broad pane or panel at the tip of the wings,
which is technically termed the second sub-marginal cell, rapidly narrows
as it extends forward into the wing, for two-thirds of its length, the remain-
ing third being quite narrow, with its opposite sides parallel. Along the
vein which forms the boundary of this cell on its outer side, is a percepti-
ble smokiness, which is not seen along the sides of the other veins, This
vein is slightly bent in the form of a bow two-thirds the length of the cell,
when it abruptly curves in the opposite direction, and is then straight the
remainder of its length. A veinlet connects it to the next longitudinal
vein, thus forming between the anterior portions of these two veins a third
sub-marginal cell, which is very long and narrow.

The arrangement of the veins in the wings, forming three submarginal
cells as above described, induces me to refer this species without hesita-
tion to Macquart’s genus Trupanea; although the silvery white spot on the
tip of the male abdomen would indicate it to pertain to the genus Hraa, as
restricted by the same author.

The brief note of our correspondent gives us no particular information
upon the habits of these flies or the manner in which they attack and kill
the bees. But the members of this Asilus group are all so similar in their
habits that we are aware what the operations of this species will be. And
some account of the habits of these insects may be of sufficient interest to
the reader to be here related. :

These Asilus flies, like some other of our most rapacious insects, parti-
cularly delight in the hot sunshine, One or two evidences of this may here
be adduced.

Flies of this kind are rare in my vicinity. I suppose I might hunt for
days without heing able to find a living specimen. And I do not recollect to
have ever seen one of them, hitherto, about my house or yard. Three days
ago, however, when occupied in preparing this account, I casually spread
some damp newspapers beforemy door to dry in the hot sun. “On stepping
out to gather up these papers I was most agreeably surprised to see
alighted upon one of them and basking in the sun, what proves to be a

‘

44

BEE-KILLER. ITS FETID ODOR. CRUEL MODE OF KILLING ITS PREY.
species of Trupanea which I had never met with before, and which is closely
like though probably distinct from this Nebraska Bee-killer. The genial
warmth reflected from the white surface of the paper lying in the clear sun
had evidently attracted it to this unusual situation.

So late as the month of October, ten years ago, upon a clear warm day,
in a sunny nook upon the south side of a forest, I came upon quite a num-
ber of the Hrax rujibarbis, flying about and alighting upon the leaves—a
species I have never met with except in that instance. They were warmed
into such quickness of motion, and were so extremely vigilant and shy of
my approach, that with my utmost skill I was able to capture but two in-
dividuals which were impeded in their movements from being paired to-
gether. I infer these Nebraska flies to be common and far less wary than
the species alluded to—else our correspondent would have been unable to
secure two individuals of each sex to transmit to us. And I suspect these
specimens were obtained when they were copulated. If so, it is probable
that the three sting-like bristles which I have described above, are not
protruded and visible externally, except at such times,

In flying, these insects make a very loud humming sound, which can
scarcely be distinguished from that uf the bumble-bee; and when involved
within the folds of a net, they utter the same piping note of distress as does
that insect. This very probably contributed to impress our correspondent
with the thought that the three bristles which are extruded by the male
are a formidable three-pronged sting.

Another fact which I do not see alluded to by any author, is the fetid
carion-like odor which some of these Asilus flies exhale. I noticed this
odor in the Lrax rufibarbis which was captured as above related. And in
these Nebraska specimens, though they have now been dead a fortnight
and freely exposed to the air the latter half of that time, this disgusting
scent still remains, and so powerful is it that on two occasions nausea has
been produced when they have happened to be left upon the table beside
me. As the newly captured fly above mentioned is wholly destitute of
this fetor, it may be that it is only at the period of sexual intercourse that
it occurs. ;

These flies are inhuman murderers. They are the savages of the insect
world, putting their captives to death with merciless cruelty. Their large
eyes divided into such a multitude of facets, probably give them most acute
and accurate vision for espying and seizing their pray; and their long stout
legs, their bearded and bristly head, their whole aspect indicates them to
be of a predatory and ferecious character. Like the hawk they swoop upon
their prey, and grasping it securely between their fure feet they violently
bear it away. They have no teeth and jaws wherewith to bite, gnaw and
masticate their food, but are furnished instead with an apparatus which
answers them equally well for nourishing themselves. It is well known
what maddening pain the horse flies occasion to horses and cattle, in wound-
ing them and sucking their blood. These Asilus flies possess similar
organs, but larger and more simple in their structure, more firm, stout and
powerful, In the horse flies the trunk or proboscis is soft, flexible and sen-

45

BEE-KILLER. ITS HABITS AND DESTRUCTIVENESS.

sitive. Here it is hard and destitute of feeling—a large, tapering, horn-
like tube, inclosing a sharp lance or spear-pointed tongue to dart out from
its end and cut a wound for it to enter, this end, moreover, being fringed
and bearded around with stiff bristles to bend backward and thus hold it
securely in the wound into which it is crowded. The proboscis of the
horse flies is tormenting, but this of the Asilus flies is torturing. That
presses its soft cushion-like lips to the wound to suck the blood from it ;
this crowds its hard prickly knob into the wound to pump the juices there-
from. It is said these Asilus flies sometimes attack cattle and horses, but
other writers disbelieve this. Should any of our Nebraska friends see one
of these bee-killers alighting upon and actually wounding horses or cattle,
we hope they will inform us of the fact, that this mooted point may be defin-
itely settled. Certain itis that these flies nourish themselves principally
upon other insects, attacking all that they are sufficiently large and strong
to overpower. Even the hard crustaceous shell with which the beetles are
covered fails to protect them from the butchery of these barbarians. And
formidably as the bee is equipped for punishing any intruder which ven-
tures to molest it, it here finds itself overmatched and its sting powerless
against the horny proboscis of its murderer. These flies appear to be par-
ticularly prone to attack the bees. Robineau Desvoidy states that he had
repeatedly seen the Asilus diadema, a European species somewhat smaller
than this of Nebraska, flying with a bee in its hold. But it probably does
not relish these more than it does other insects. We presume it to be
because it finds them in such abundance, as enables it to make a meal upon
them most readily, and with the least exertion, that these Nebraska flies
fall upon the bees and the rose bugs. And so large as they are, a single
one will require perhaps a hundred bees per day for its nourishment. If
these flies are common, therefore, they will inevitably occasion great losses
to the bee keepers in that part of our country.

No feasible mode of destroying this fly or protecting the bees from it at
present occurs to me. Indeed such an accurate knowledge of the particu-
lar habits of this species as we do not at present possess, is necessary, to
show in what manner it can be most successfully combatted,

Since the foregoing account was written, Mr. Thompson has favored us
with another communication, giving some most interesting observations upon
the habits and destructiveness of this insect, which we here append in his
own words. He says, My attention was first called to this fly destroying
the honey bee by a little boy, a son of D. C. Utty, Esq., of this place.
After sending you the specimens I watched its proceedings and habits with
much care, and find that, in addition to the honey bee and rose bugs,
it devours many other kinds of beetles, bugs and flies, some of which are
as large again as itself. It appears to be in the months of June and July
that it is abroad upon the wing, destroying the bees. None of them are
now (August 2d) to be seen. When in pursuit of its prey it makes quite
rapid dashes, always capturing the bee on the wing. When once secured
by wrapping its legs about it, pressing it tightly to its own body, it imme.
diately seeks a bush or tall weed, upon which it alights and commences

46
E BEE-KILLER. ITS TENACITY OF LIFE.

devouring its prey by eating (piercing) a hole into the body and in a short
time entirely consuming it (sucking out the fluids and soft internal viscera)
and leaving only the hard outer skin or shell of the bee. Upon the ground
beneath some favorable perch for the fly near the apiary, hundreds of these
shells of bees are found accumulated in a single day—whether the work of
one fly or of several I am not able to say. I have just returned from a pro-
fessional tour through the northern portion of our Territory, taking Nur-
sery orders; and in many things this business and the apiary are closely
connected. In no case have I found a hive of bees that has thrown off a
swarm this season! The dry weather, bad pasture and other reasons were
assigned as the cause. But many persons, since they have found this fly
at his work of destruction, now believe it to be the cause of the non-
swarming of their bees ; and I am led to the same opinion. I have only
to add further, that this Bee-killer delights in hot, dry weather, and is very
invulnerable and tenacious of life. I have observed the honey bee and
also the hornet sting it repeatedly, but with no other effect than to cause it
to tighten its hold upon them. Once when I forced the assassin to release
his prey, he gave me such a wound in the hand as has learned me ever
since to be cautious how I interfered with him. He will live an hour with
a pin thrust through his body which has been dipped in the solution of
cyanuret of Potassium.

PEE” ETOP’ AP TT TS

—

From an Address delivered before the Annual Meeting of the State Agricultural Society
Albany, February 8th, 1865.

The insect which the past season attracted the most notice and did the
most damage in our State, was the Aphis or Plant-louse upon the hops.
Although the hop has been growing, both wild and cultivated, in this
country, from time immemorial, I am not aware that this enemy has ever
attacked or been observed upon it, until two summers ago, when it sud-
denly made its appearance in excessive numbers; and in consequence of
its advent, the two past years have been the most disastrous to the exten-
sive hop growers in the central section of our State, which they have ever
experienced. In some yards the hops have not been picked, and in other
yards a portion of those that have been gathered, it is said, ought never to
have been dried and put up for market, they are so small and worthless;
whilst the best that have been grown are of an inferior quality, the bitter
principle, on which their value depends, being deficient, according to the
published reports, to the extent of from 15 to 25 per cent.

The newspapers and agricultural periodicals have abounded with notice:
of this failure of the hop crop. From the extended accounts which some
of these publications have given, it would appear that there are three dif-
ferent maladies with which the hop vines have recently become affected,
namely, the Aphis or plant-lice, the honey dew, and the black bight. The
plant-lice are scft pale yellowish-green insects, not so large as the head of
a pin, which remain stationary upon the under sides of the leaves, crowded
together and wholly covering the surface. The honey dew appears on the
upper surface of the leaves, as a shining, clear and transparent fluid, sticky,
like honey smeared over the surface. The black blight also occurs on the
upper sides of the leaves and resembles coal dust sifted upon and adhering
firmly to them, or the leaves look as though they had been held in the
smoke of a bhitnindy until they had become blackened over with soot.
This black blight is deemed to be a kind of fungus growing from the leaves,
analogous to the rust and smut in grain, and it is stated that in some fae
yards sulphur has been dusted over the leaves to kill or check its growth,
but without having the slightest effect upon it.

Which of these maladies is the most pernicious, it would be difficult to
judge from the published accounts, one writer seeming to regard the Aphis
as the principal evil, whilst another wholly ignores this insect and dwells
upon the black blight as being the cause of the failure of the crop. And
it is not a little amusing to observe how very wise the reporters to some
of the newspapers appear in giving an account of these diseases, and what
a display of scientific lore they make, when their statements betray to us

48

the fact that they have not the first correct idea upon the subject on which
they are writing.

The truth is, these three maladies, about one and another of which so
much has been said, are all one thing—differing merely as cause and effect.
If there were no lice on hops there would be no honey dew and no black
blight. I am aware the hop growers will be much surprised at this state-
ment, and will scarcely credit it, they have been so accustomed to regard
these things as distinct from and in no wise connected with each other—
deeming the honey dew to be a fluid which has exuded from the leaves in
consequence of some disease therein, and the black blight to be, asalready
stated, a kind of fungus growing from the leaves, whilst the plant lice,
occurring only on the opposite or under side of the leaves, appear to be
wholly separated from these substances upon their upper surface. But I
am perfectly assured of the correctness of what I say, and can produce
specimens which will demonstrate that I am correct. I regret that this
subject did not occur to my mind last summer, or I would have had such
specimens for exhibition here at this time. Upon the first opportunity, I
will procure and place in the Museum of our Society, specimen of leaves
showing this honey dew upon them, and others showing the black blight;
and by the side of these leaves I will place white paste-board cards having
the same honey dew and the same black blight upon them—thus demon- ,
strating that these substances do not exude and grow from the leaves unless
they also exude and grow from the paste-board cards.

I will now briefly explain how these two substances come upon the
leaves.

Each Aphis has two little horns projecting from the hind part of its back,
which horns are termed the honey tubes. From these tubes the fluid called
honey dew is ejected, in the form of minute drops, like particles of dew,
which, falling upon the leaves beneath them, the upper surface of the leaves
becomes coated over with this fluid, more or less copiously as the Aphides
producing it are more or less numerous. And now, ths deposit of honey
dew being exposed to the action of the atmosphere and alternately moist-
ened by the dews at night and dried by the sun by day, is gradually decom-
posed, changing from a clear, shining, transparent fluid, to an opake, black
substance resembling soot, and it is then the black blight. In this simple
manner do we account for and explain these phenomena—these three impor-
tant diseases of the hop, about which so much has been said and such eru-
dition has been displayed by some of the writers in our newspapers.

These same phenomena, called honey dew and black blight, are not pecu-
liar to the hop, but occur on other kinds of vegetation when infested by
plant-lice; and an abundance of authority will substantiate my statement
that this honey dew is caused by these insects. But I find no allusion to
the black blight in any author, and what I state of that is the result of my
own observations. It is proper, therefore, that 1 here adduce some of the
evidence which I have, upon this particular point.

It is over twenty years ago that I first noticed this blackness as being
occasioned by plant-lice. Among several willow trees by the side of a
stream near my residence, there was one so thronged with the willow aphis

49

that I went several times to that tree to contemplate the spectacle which
these insects presented. And all through the following winter, no person
passing within sight of that tree could fail of noticing the blackness of
its trunk and limbs, it being the more remarkable as none of the other
willow trees aroundit had any tinge of this color. The thought thereupon
became impressed upon my mind, that it was the plant-lice with which this
tree had been so overrun the preceding summer, which had in some way
imparted this blackness to its bark. Two or three winters afterwards, I
noticed the same blackened appearance to a pine tree, which tree I knew
had been thronged with Aphides the summer before. I need not specify
the several other instances of this phenomena which I have noticed, Seve-
ral years since, when I was investigating the Aphis of the apple tree, I
discovered that, in addition to the bark of trees, the leaves also acquired
this sooty appearance, from these insects; and then, upon giving this sub-
ject a particular examination, I became assured that this black substance
was merely the honey dew in a decomposed state.

Some writers have remarked that dry weather causes the several kinds
of plant-lice to increase and become pests to the different species of vege-
tation which they respectively inhabit; and my own observations incline
me to regard this remark as being correct. During the dry period in June
which frequently succeeds the spring rains, I have in particular years
noticed these insects as occurring in unusual numbers, whereupon I have
apprehended that, having acquired such a start so early in the season, they
would prove to be the most pernicious insects of the year; bet rainy weather
coming on after this, they have seemed thereupon to decline and have ceased
to attract further attention. Hence I think it true as a general rule, that
dry weather favors and wet weather retards their increase. And at first
thought, this view is further strengthened by the fact that this Aphis upon
the hops was so excessively numerous the past summer, when we experi-
enced a drouth of such protracted length and severity. But, on the other
hand, these insects were similarly numerous the year before, when the
suinmer was unusually wet. We are thus assured there is some influence
more potent than the hygrometric state of the atmosphere, which has
brought them forth in such hosts upon the hops.

Perhaps in no other group or family of insects are the differeut species
so very closely akin to each other as in this of the Aphides. So nearly
identical are most of them, both in their appearance and habits, that we
know them to be distinct species only from the fact that they inhabit dif-
ferent plants, each one being unable to sustain itself upon any other than
the plant to which it belongs. Being thus intimately related, we should
confidently expect that the same atmospherical or other influence which
causes one species to suddenly multiply and become extremely numerous,
would operate upon and similarly affect the other species also. But this
is by no means the case. As every one will remember, in the summer of
1861, all our fields of grain suddenly became so thronged with the Grain
Aphis as to throw the whole country into alarm. Why did not the same
cause which brought that insect upon us in such a remarkable manner,
operate also to bring this insect upon the hops at that time, instead of

4

50

two years later? Or, if this insect was not then in our country, when it
did appear in such vast numbers two years ago, why was not the same influ-
ence which occasioned its surprising multiplication then, felt also by the
Grain Aphis, causing it to re-appear in our grain fields? The two insects
being so intimately related, it is a mystery beyond the reach of human
comprehension, how some hidden influence comes to operate upon the one,
causing it to multiply and increase so astonishingly, whilst the other remains
passive and not in the least affected by it.

This insect is not limited to the extensive hop plantations in the central
parts of this State, but appears to have everywhere overrun the hop vines,
both wild and cultivated. It was abundant the past summer in my own
neighborhood, and specimens were also sent me from St. Lawrence county,
whereby we know that its range extends to the eastern and northern con-
fines of the State, but farther than this we do not possess any definite
information. :

This Aphis appears to be identical with that which has long been known
in Europe as the worst enemy of the hop, and which sixty-five years ago
received its scientific name, Aphis Humuli or the Hop Aphis, from the Ger-
man naturalist Schrank (Fauna Boica, vol. ii, p. 110.) Messrs. Kirby and
Spence, in their introduction to Entomology (American edition, p. 135,)
speak of the damage inflicted by this insect as follows: ‘‘ Upon the presence
or absence of Aphides, the crop of every year depends; so that the hop-
grower is wholly at the mercy of these insects. They are the barometer
that indicates the rise and fallof his wealth, as cf a very important branch
of the revenue, the difference in the amount of the duty on hops being
often as much as £200,000 per annum, more or less, in proportion as
this fly prevails or the contrary.’ This statement forcibly shows what
a direct interest our own government has in patronizing these investiga-
tions in which Iam employed—this one little insect, in years when it is
numerous, taking from the revenue of the British government half a million
of dollars!

My own researches upon this insect are obviously too limited as yet, to
enable me to give such a particular history of its habits and operations, as
its importance merits. I therefore present the following account from the
London Gardener’s Chronicle, for the year 1854, page 429:

“Ags soon as the Aphides settle upon the hops, they suck the underside
of the leaves, and immediately deposit their young, which are viviparous,
and have the singular faculty of propagating their species within a few
hours after their birth; and in this manner many generations are produced
without the intervention of the fully formed Aphis fly; indeed, upon one
hill of hops, millions of lice are born and die, neither parents nor progeny
having ever attained the condition of the perfect insect. When the first
attack of these flies upon the hops is severe, and early in the season, the
growth of the plant is commonly stopped in the course of three or four
weeks. If the attack be late, that is about mid-summer or afterwards, the
vine has then attained so much strength that it struggles on against the
blight, to its disadvantage, and the result is a total failure of the crop at
least; for the leaves fall off, and the fruit branches being already formed,

5]

there is nochance of recovery. At this time, and in this condition, the stench
from the hop plantation is most offensive. * * * *

“The progress and usual termination of the Aphis blight may be thus
described : The flies, as before remarked, on their first arrival, immediately
suck the underside of the upper small leaves of the vine, and thus they
there deposit their young, upon the most succulent part of the plant. The
multiplication of the lice is so rapid, that the leaves become so thickly
covered as scarcely to allow a pin to be thrust between them. They
quickly abstract the juices of the vine, so that the leaves assume a sickly ,
brown hue, and curl up, and the vine itself ceases to grow, and falls out
the pole, the lice continuing till they perish for want of food ; and thus the
crop is destroyed, and the grower may often consider himself fortunate if
the plant recovers a due amount of vitality to produce a crop in the follow-
ing year, for occasionally the hills are killed by the severity of the attack.
This description, of course, applies only to the most severe and unusual
blights.”

The Aphides are the most evanescent of all insects. They spring up
suddenly, in such immense numbers as to threaten the utter destruction of
the vegetation on which they subsist, and ere long they vanish with equal
suddenness—sometimes continuing but a few weeks, and rarely remaining
in force longer than through one year. It thus appears, that, so long as
the atmospherical or other influence which favors their increase, continues
to operate upon them, they thrive and prosper, and when this influence
passes away they rapidly decline. The writer in the Gardener’s Chronicle,
cited above, remarks of this Aphis on the hops, ‘‘ These insects are remark-
ably susceptible of atmospherical and electrical changes, and on a sudden
alteration of the weather we have known them perish by myriads in a
night. This was specially exemplified in the Farnham district, about the
middle of June, 1846, which suddenly recovered from a most severe attack,
and afterwards produced the largest crop ever known in that quarter. We
know, also, several instances in East Kent, which occurred in the same
year, when the planters sold their growths on the poles at a few shillings
per acre, and these same plantations so far recovered that many of them
afterwards produced a crop worth from 30/. to 50/. per acre.”

The decline and disappearance of these plant lice is greatly expedited by
other insects which destroy them ; and in many instances it is to these de-
stroyers rather than to any atmospherical change, that the vegetation on
which they abound becomes so suddenly released from them. No other
tribe of insects has so many enemies of its own class as the plant lice. The
different species of Coccinella or lady-bugs which are everywhere so com-
mon, live exclusively upon the aphides, as do also the larvee of the two-
winged Syrphus flies and the four-winged Golden- -eyed flies. Superadded
to these destroyers the plant lice also have their internal parasites—ex-
ceedingly minute worms or maggots residing within their bodies and
feeding upon till they kill them. Thus, whenever a tree or shrub becomes
thronged with plant lice, these destroyers gather among and around them,
in rapidly augmenting numbers, and subsist upon them until they have
wholly exterminated them. Kirby and Spence (page 187) state that in the

52

year 1807 the sea shore at Brighton and all the watering places on the
south coast of England, was literally covered with lady bugs, to the great
surprise, and evea alarm, of the inhabitants, who were ignorant that. their
little visitors were emigrants from the neighboring hop-grounds, where
each had slain his thousands and tens of thousands of the aphis.

These several kinds of destroyers of the plant lice were everywhere com-
mon upon the hop vines the past summer. I believe that in every instance
in which leaves with the lice upon them were sent me by correspondents,
I found one or more of these destroyers also upon the leaves; and in one
box that came to me, not one of the lice was remaining, all having been
devoured by several of these enemies which had happened to be inclosed
in the box. These destroyers having been.so common, it is quite probable
that they have now subdued these lice to such an extent that the coming
season the crop will be much less if at all damaged by them.

It is of great importance that we should- have some remedy, whereby,
when these insects do fall upon the hop vines in such myriads as they have
done the past two years, we may be able to promptly destroy them.

As the lice remain stationary upon the undersides of the leaves and are
so very tender and delicate that the slightest pressure suffices to crush and
kill them, Mr. Kirby recommends to take the leaf between the thumb and
finger, and move the finger so as to gently rub over the under surface of
the leaf, whereby every aphis upon it will be destroyed. He thinks women
and children can be employed for a small compensation to do this work,
taking every leaf in succession between the thumb and finger, and thus
wholly ridding the vines from these vermin. But we all know it will bean
immense labor to thus take hold of every leaf upon the vines occupying
whole acres of ground. Many of the leaves, too, are quite large, being five
or six inches broad, and the finger is but three inches long. I will there.
fore require one hand to hold the leaf steady, whilst the thumb and finger
of the other are drawn several times along it, mowing down the vermin
by successive swaths. Moreover, the veins on the underside of these large
leaves are studded with prickles, whereby I doubt if a dozen leaves can
thus be rubbed over before the skin of the finger will be cut through to the
quick. I need not specify other obstacles which occur to my mind, all con-
curring to convince me that this proposed remedy, of the success of which
Mr. Kirby is quite sanguine, is wholly impracticable.

Washing and syringing the plants with strong soap suds has been often
recommended for destroying the aphis upon them. I have recentiy been
experimenting with this remedy, upon the plant lice which so badly infest
the beautiful verbenas of our Flower Gardens, and I find it to be of but
partial efficacy. It only kills the young, tender lice; those which are ma-
ture are so robust that they are not destroyed, even though the infested
stems and leaves are immersed in a strong solution of soap.

There is one remedy, and one only, which we know to be efficacious and
perfectly sure for destroying the different species of plant lice. This is the
smoke of tobacco, It operates like a charm. It never fails. But to apply
it, it is necessary to place a box or barrel over the plant, burning the
tobacco in a cup underneath, until its smoke has filled the inclosed space

5d

and penetrated all the interstices between the leaves. Hereby the rose
bushes and other shrubs and plants in our gardens are with ease wholly
cleansed from these vermin. To render it available for destroying these
insects upon the hops, probably a piece of canvas or other large cloth can
be thrown over them or some other apparatus devised whereby they can be
fumigated for a few moments in the same thorough manner.

IN: Ne:

Agrotis NAGTiCaNns ........
Americana, Arctia ......+.
Amputating Brocade moth.
Amputatriz, Hadena ......
Apivora, Trupanea........
Ancna Americana... 6%... .
BCC Orsi ala croft a cis 4 rails) >
HEAT LEMMOS folate, t's!s, « aks
ASUS MiGdeMa.. veces
RCChieee OlatG 24.02 «6
Bold Calosoma ..........
Brocade moth, Amputating
OTOPOAT CUD: 02 5. os olds «
Calidum, Calosoma........
Calosoma calidum.........
Caraline, Sphinw.... +.
WHET SOS IMIG a5. 0 oo 6s 5 oss
Congregata, Microgaster ...
COGN GUt-WOLM 63.6) s66 5
Pee ORIDE a oo o.c< icin S acre 6
OTE 018 11S rr
a BEET POWs, g's.) cases! «

yellow-headed ...

‘ their destroyer. .
Decemlineata, Doryphora ..
Destroyer of the cut-worm.
Devastating miller........
Devastator, Phalena .......
PPICACING, MASWUS \0. os as 20
Doryphora 10-lineata......

5 UGH sara oe hel evs
Eran vujibarbis’......
Five-spotted Sphinx ..
Garden Tiger moth ...
Hadena amputatrix ...
Juncta, Doryphora....
Kalinie, Sphinn......
Mile, worm... 0.0.66:
Microgaster congregata
Moth Brocade... ....

Smee nt-worm).... .
Garden Tiger...
Tobacco worm.

“

ee

6

5

Wimneiiennoy BIEN 5 0c ooo a Gaso boo
Nebraska Bee-killer.. 3. ....%%
Nigricans, Agrotis ......---+.+-
Northern Tobacco worm........
Parasite cf Tobacco worm. .

oe “eo

Parthenos, Arctia
Phalena, devastator...
Polygramma 10-lineata
Potato-bectle, Ten-lined

Ms worm
Pteromalus Tabacum. ee take ‘Se
Quinguemaculata, Sphina ee ec $

coer ee ee ee

oe (kv eke Us ES (69 0 (© ies o 10

Rose bugs destroyed by Bee- iaile

Rufibarbis, Hrax.

INDEX.

.

a second

elie \e° ‘e > aS) 6 (6
@) waite. ‘oe ee ee
Oe ot o- ese oe
© 18 0) 6 eeee

Sphing Carolind......cere cee cereccecceces
SE ST GGA RG? et eR eae, Se See
4 quinguemaculata Seb, Muaseasihnneue 6 eRe
Striped cut-worm......----+++.0-- Se ee Ce
Surface catterpillars............---....-- ad
e ‘Sh kasha ero ore SUE ed 6 hae AUIS ac
Tapa SOHCTONTIGLUS: «2226 24s sce © eos ood
Monelnedseotato-oeetle...:.-8..%2 AE ted tae
Ae eMIOUN he ts 26 oes tts flee ee eke oe een eee
Tobacco Pteromalus.........%. Pek 24 AS ee
Tobaccc-worm, Northern ........ oy Seabees
2 SOM Ciseen. yceeepene Sst eens A
f AAS Lenssen cimeueeuere Pee is bite
es apse COM palasite: .<eere rere :
iomato-wOrm <..:.... See ee iwiseioe es ine
Trupanea Apivora...... 45.3 > eee tos
Mallow -headed Cut-worm .i2.ccic eke lhe es

Hor Apuis :
Black Blight
Coccinnella or Lady bug .....
Homey Weve. .)....-.

Hop Aphis i.
blight desc iba d

iS jie, (se) jes se». 8

ag decline and disappearance....... ,

a depredations upon hops ...... cee
* D030: a aie eee
¥ identical with Aphis Hivialit (2 sone
3 internal parasites..... PE ee ay,
q progress and termination..... Cehee
: Haye 4)

MAR.b.

WOM UIMIUIAL ML
0 021 489 667 9

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