118 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



This year, during July, various sections of the country have been 

 covered with a worm of various sizes, but sometimes as large as 

 13^ inches long and near a ^-inch in diameter. As I remember 

 it now, it had two pairs of legs forward and three pairs aft, and 

 varied in color with its food supply, some specimens being a bright 

 green and grading from that to nearly black. The worm did im- 

 mense damage to growing alfalfa and grasses, but so far as I am 

 advised, did not trouble the trees. After the passing of the worm, 

 this butterfly developed, whi^ch in its original swarming filled the 

 air with myriads of them, and at this place the entire swarm was 

 headed in one general direction, west, in very rapid flight." 



Our next report for 1911, by a coincidence, was of the same 

 date — August 25 — from Mr. J. J. Monroe, of Willow Ranch, 

 California, whose letter appears to be of sufficient interest to give 

 in full. 



"About June 1, of the present year, an old gardener told me 

 that he noticed many of the specimens of butterfly I send you 

 flitting about his garden and alfalfa fields. About six weeks later 

 many of the destructive larvae were noticed in the alfalfa fields 

 and in gardens. Thousands of the larvae left the hay (alfalfa) 

 that I hauled into my barn and attacked one of my gardens which 

 was nearby — i.e., 30 or 40 feet from the barn. They ate any kind 

 of green vegetation — potato tops, peach tree leaves, garden weeds 

 of any and all kinds, gooseberry leaves; in fact, apparently any 

 and all kinds of green vegetation except death -weed. The larvae 

 have very much the appearance of the ordinary cutworm in the 

 earlier stages of its growth, but it grows to be larger and much 

 longer than the ordinary cutworm, and in the latter stages of the 

 larval growth is of a light green color. Many of the larvae attain 

 a length of at least two inches, and some a length of probably as 

 much as two and one-half inches. These larvae while in my garden 

 worked at night — i.e., during the darkness. Looking in the day- 

 time, it was remarkable to find in sight even one larva, but they 

 could be found in abundance in the ground about one inch from 

 the surface. The domestic hen and the ordinary blackbird are 

 very fond of both the larvae and of the butterfly. The larvae 

 have destroyed quite an amount of alfalfa that was to be cut for 

  seed, and also some alfalfa that would have been a second cutting 



