EXPLANATORY NOTE. 



In Bulletin 33. issued in November, 1891, Professor J. H. Com- 

 stock and the writer gave a detailed account, occupying 80 pages, 

 of nearly three years of experimentation with wireworins. The 

 bulletin embodied the results of our efforts to discover a practicable 

 method of preventing the ravages of these pests, and a study of 

 the life-history of several common species. 



In Bulletin 50, issued in March, 1893, the writer devoted 26 

 pages to a detailed discussion of the hud moth, one of the most de- 

 structive insect pests in the orchards of western Kew York. Our 

 two years' study of the insect enabled us to correct several erroneous 

 statements regarding its h:ibits and life-history which had a very 

 practical bearing on the method of combating it. 



Wire worms had long i-anked among the worst insects pests of the 

 general farmer; the bud moth threatened to "nip in the bud" 

 many a prospective crop of fruit; and unfortunately what little 

 definite and accurate knowledge has been published regarding these 

 insects was widely scattered and inaccessible to the farmer or fruit 

 grower. Therefore, as our bulletins combined these previously as- 

 certained facts with many new ones, the results of much original 

 investigation, the demand for the bulletins was so great that the en- 

 tire edition of each was exhausted in less than a year. So that 

 during the past two or three years that these bulletins have been 

 "out of print," the information they contain has been inaccessible 

 to the hundreds of correspondents who have desired information 

 regarding wireworms and the bud moth. 



Although but few observations have since been made on these in- 

 sects, it seems advisable, in consideration of the above facts, to again 

 discuss them. In the following pages we, therefore, give, in a con- 

 densed form, the information contained in Bulletins 33 and 50; 

 what few new facts we have seen recorded are also included in their 

 proper connection, thus bringing the information up to date. 

 Several new figures enliven the pages. 



M. Y. slingerla:n'd. 



