238 Bulletin 133. 



were captured in post-holes dug in ditches on Long Island in 1880, 

 but in 1 88 1 scarcely any were seen on the Island. 



In August, 1882, the insect appeared in formidable numbers 

 near Saratoga Springs, and was also very destructive in Suflfolk 

 County. In 1885, the worms were reported as doing much dam- 

 age in oats in Orange County. They next attracted attention in 

 Orleans County in 1888, where they injured the barley crop 

 twenty per cent. Two years later (1890) the worms are reported 

 to have destroyed many acres of timothy in Queen's County. 

 This completes the record of appearances in destructive numbers 

 of the army-worm in New York state previous to 1896. 



Notes on the Outbreak of 1896. 



During the spring and summer of 1896, the army- worm ap- 

 peared in destructive numbers in portions of ten states, constitut- 

 ing what is probably the most serious outbreak of the pest known 

 in the history of the country. In some states most of the damage 

 was done in May, but usually it was the July brood which ap- 

 peared in almost incredible numbers ; in a few localities, however, 

 it was not until September that the pest was seen in injurious 

 numbers. 



In New York state the outbreak was the most wide-spread and 

 most destructive of any before recorded. We have authentic re- 

 ports of armies of the worms having worked in forty-eight of the 

 sixty counties of the state. V/e heard nothing of the insect in the 

 state until about July ist, when letters, telegrams, and even long- 

 distance telephone messages began to pour in from all sections. 

 A circular letter and telegram were prepared and for nearly three 

 weeks in July, we were kept busy answering the urgent requests 

 of the hundreds of correspondents whose crops, in many cases, 

 were disappearing, often at the rate of an acre or more per day, 

 down the throats of the armies of hungry worms. 



Nearly all kinds of field crops were ravaged by the caterpillars. 

 Corn and oats seem to have suffered the most ; there is no data 

 upon v/hich to base any definite estimates, but one may safely say 

 that thousands of acres of these two crops alone were ruined by 

 the worms in New York. In many localities, rye, barley, wheat, 

 millet, meadows, pasture lands, and Hungarian grass suffered 



