24 The Bulletin. 



by these pests is done by the adults, which have biting mouth parts 

 and frequently injure the leaves by eating holes through them. The 

 chief offender in this respect is the Tobacco Flea Beetle (page 31). 



Hymenoptera. — Bees, Wasps, Ants, etc. There are no insect enemies 

 of tobacco in this group, but certain four-winged "flies" are parasites 

 of tobacco insects (page 29). 



THE PRINCIPAL INSECT ENEMIES OF TOBACCO. 



Tobacco is especially favored among general farm crops by hav- 

 ing comparatively few serious insect enemies. Of all the insects 

 discussed on the following pages, only two are normally serious 

 enemies of the growing tobacco crop. These two, the Horn Worms 

 and the Flea Beetle, are usually very serious pests. Two other insects, 

 Bud Worms and Cutworms, are usually nearly as serious as the 

 Horn Worms and Flea Beetles. Thus we have in North Carolina 

 only four insects that deserve first rank as tobacco pests. 



Horn Worms. *• *■ 



Also Called "Tobacco Worms," "Tomato Worms," "Hornblowebs," 



1 'tob acco-fltes . " 

 (Order Lepidoptera.) 



Horn Worms are a very familiar object to all tobacco growers, and 

 in general their life-histories are well known. Most tobacco farmers 

 recognize the large, strong-flying, narrow-winged "candle flies" as the 

 insect which lays the small, light-green spherical eggs on the under- 

 side of the leaves, and, as a rule, they know that these eggs hatch into 

 Horn Worms, which change to brown "pitchers" and issue later as 

 "candle flies." (Fig. 8.) Because the life-history of this pest is so 

 well known and because it is a very destructive tobacco insect, we 

 have taken it as a starting point in the consideration of all insects 

 which are injurious to tobacco. It is not necessary for the farmer 

 to know that there are two kinds of Horn Worms, but attention is 

 called to this point throughout the following discussion merely because 

 it is interesting to know that North Carolina has both injurious forms. 

 The one most frequently met with in the tobacco field, and con- 

 stituting at least 90 per cent of the worms in the field, may be known 

 as the Southern Horn Worm. 1 The other may be known as the North- 

 ern Horn Worm, 2 as its range is decidedly more northern than the 



common kind. 



General Description. — A light greenish worm with oblique bands of 

 white on the sides of its body, measuring when full grown three or 

 four inches in length and provided with a short, stout, curved horn 

 at the hind end of its body. Found in the tobacco fields from early 



iphlegethontius sexta, John. 

 tphlegethontius quinquemaculata, Haw. 



