STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 93 



Hessian-fly. {Cccidomgia destructor,) and the wheat-midge, {Cccidoingia 

 tritici. ) The others would mostly fall into the third and fourth classes, 

 though a few, which are sometimes quite injurious to corn and wheat in 

 the granary, might, perhaps, be properly regarded as having a second 

 class importance. 



We have referred above to five species of seriously injurious insects, 

 under the head of general feeders. These are not confined, like most 

 insects, to some one kind of tree or plant, but feed more or less indis- 

 criminately upon whatever comes within their reach. In this category we 

 include, first, the white grub, or larva of the common May-beetle ; sec- 

 ond, the Caloptenus spretus, or the destructive grasshopper of the western 

 plains ; and this may be taken as a type or sample of a number of some- 

 what similar but less destructive species ; third, the army worm {Lcucania 

 iini/n/ncta) ; fourth, the stalk-borer, which is the larva or caterpillar of 

 the Gortyna nitena ; and fifth, the cut-worm, under which general or gen- 

 eric term I include a number of closely allied si)ecies, all of which are the 

 caterpillars of a family of moths known as the Agrotidae. None of these 

 general feeders, however, are sufficiently destructive, nor so generally dif- 

 fused as to rank as first class noxious insects ; but they all may be prop- 

 erly admitted into the second class. 



Of the insects injurious to domestic animals, we admit but three into 

 the selected list of one hundred species, and these are the bot flies, 

 respectively, of the horse, the ox, and the sheep. The bot fly of the 

 sheep may, perhaps, be admitted into the second class, but those of the 

 horse and ox can not rank above the third class. Indeed, it is an unset- 

 tled question whether the bot fly of the horse is ever seriously injurious to 

 that animal ; but it may very properly be admitted into the list on 

 account of its very curious history, and the uncertainty which still 

 attaches to its real influence upon the horse. 



The above enumeration, my friends, will give you a general idea of 

 the number and comparative importance of the more serious insect foes 

 with which you have to deal, under the respective heads of fruit insects, 

 grain insects, in.sects injurious to vegetables, general feeders, and insects 

 injurious to the domestic animals. 



I commenced this lecture by saying that it is sometimes useful to 

 take a retrospective view of the field of conflict in which we are engaged, 

 and to see how we stand. I propose, in the time that remains to me, to 

 take up in detail some of our most notorious noxious insects, and see 

 how we stand affected towards them at the present time. The principal 

 agencies antagonistic to the spread of insects may be stated to be the four 

 following: First — climatic influences; second — insectivorous birds, and 

 other animals, including predaceous insects; third — jjarasitic insects; and 

 fourth — human instrumentality. It will be interesting to pa.ss in review 

 a few of the more important insects with reference to each of these sources 

 of opposition. 



FiRsr — The Apple Worm, or larva of the Codlifig Moth. This insect 

 passes most of its life, either in the substance of the fruit, or in a compact 

 cocoon more or less deeply protected under the bark of the tree, or in 



