1907 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 25 



in gardens. Ou the 25tli of June all tlie plants of these genera in this 

 neighborhood were covered with the insects and a vast number of eggs had 

 been deposited upon the main and flowering stems of the plants. I was 

 curious to know what would happen when all the eggs were hatched for it 

 seemed as if they would produce enough insects to over-run the country. 

 Apparently the season was unsuitable for the development of the nymphs or 

 one of the many disasters to which "feeble folk" are subject overtook them, 

 for by August there were no Cosmopeplas to be seen. The millions of adults 

 which appeared in the spring had all passed away and there were none of 

 their progeny to represent them. 



I have not yet been able to discover what this insect feeds upon. As it 

 resorts to Aquilegia, Antirrhinum and Pentstemon and upon them its eggs 

 are deposited, it would seem that these plants should supply its food. Yet 

 although hundreds of adult and immature Cosmopeplas may be upon a 

 plant, no perceptible harm is ever done to it, and all my efforts to raise the 

 nymph from the eggs have proved abortive, though I kept them well sup- 

 plied with shoots from the plants upon which the eggs were deposited. I 

 tried them also with Aphides under the impression that perhaps they lived 

 upon the juices of other insects, but this too was a failure. 



Locusts. — Just before harvest time locusts became troublesome in the 

 oat fields, where they did some damage by cutting off the ripening grain 

 from the stalk and dropping it to the ground. In some fields the soil was 

 covered with the grain so cut off. Under ordinary circumstances the 

 loss would be somewhat serious, but this year, owing to the short crop, is 

 d»ubly so. 



The Stalk-borer (Gorty/ia cataphracta) . — Perhaps the worst enemy vege- 

 tables growers and florists have to contend with now is the larva known as 

 the Stalk-borer. T^is creature has increased rapidly in numbers during the 

 past five years and unless it is checked by some of its natural enemies will 

 cause great loss and annoyance, as it is almost impossible for man to control 

 it by any mechanical means. During this past season I took over two dozen 

 larvae from the stems of plants in my garden of about a quarter of an acre 

 and I received great numbers from market gardeners and florists both ama- 

 teur and professional of this district. It is practically an omnivorous feeder, 

 any plant, either wild or cultivated, having a stem large enough to contain 

 it being liable to attack and unfortunately the infested pliant shows no 

 sign of infestation until the larva has eaten out the heart of the occupied 

 stem. When this occurs the stem breaks off or its leaves wither and die. If 

 it is the main stem which is occupied, as is generally the case with tomatoes 

 and corn, the plant is ruined. 



I have not yet been able to ascertain where or when the moth deposits 

 the eggs from which the larvae are produced. It might be that the moth 

 hibernates and deposits its eggs upon the shoots of plants in the spring, but 

 I have not yet found an adult dormant, nor have I seen it in the spring. 



In July the work of the larvae is first noticeable, and a rather peculiar 

 thing is that, almost up to the end of the month, larvae varying in size from 

 about one-third to full grown may be found in close proximity; this year I 

 found on the fourteenth of July a number showing among them even greater 

 variations than that. 



About the twenty-fifth of July the more advanced specimens begin to 

 enter the pupal stage, the smaller ones continuing to feed sometimes well on 

 into August. Early in September the moths begin to emerge and continue 

 doing so until the end of the month when they are at the height of their 

 abundance, and on dark nights come to light in large numbers. This year 



