December, '12] GARMAX: NOTES FROM KENTUCKY 467 



A second insect worthy of notice is the fall army worm {Laphygma 

 frugiperda) , which began to attract attention in Kentucky in mid- 

 summer because of its injuries to millet and alfalfa. It continued 

 until fall, doing most of its mischief to plantings of alfalfa and rye. 

 The insect is believed to be a migrant and during the summer to come 

 to us from the South. The adult, however, is constantly present in 

 Kentucky during hot weather, though this is the first time in all my 

 experience, covering more than a dozen years, when the injuries have 

 attracted the attention of farmers. 



The third insect deserving special mention is the southern cotton 

 worm {Alabama argillacea). It is to be remembered that Kentucky 

 is not now a cotton-growing state. A few bales are produced each 

 year in the extreme southwestern corner of the state, but it is hardly 

 regarded as a crop of sufficient importance to be worthy of notice by 

 our people gathering agricultural statistics. The cotton worm moth 

 is a rare insect in the state. It appears suddenlj^ at long intervals 

 about the electric lights of our cities, where it was extremely common 

 September 23, 1911. Nothing was seen of it in 1912, until late in the 

 summer when a few appeared again about the electric lights in Sep- 

 tember, and occasional specimens have been observed from time to 

 time during early October. So far as I know the insect does not breed 

 in the state, but simply migrates northward from southern cotton 

 fields. 



The pickle worm {Diaphania nitidalis) has been more destructive 

 during the past summer than I have ever known it before. Whole 

 plantings of cucumbers and cantaloups were so badly damaged as to 

 be scarcely fit for market. It works upon the cucumbers when half 

 as long as one's finger, and continues until they are of some size, the 

 invasion being followed by a soft rot which soon extends throughout 

 the whole fruit. It has proved injurious also to other vegetables of 

 the same family, such as squashes and simlins. 



I have had more complaints of the twig-girdler (Oncideres cingu- 

 latus) this year than ever before. It has been sent to me by a number 

 of correspondents and reported injuring very badly persimmon, and 

 hickory and pecan. Associated with the injury on pecan trees was 

 the hickory shuck worm {Grapliolitha caryce) This worm perforates 

 the hulls, sometimes penetrating the young and soft nut, and while 

 not always destroying the nut, seems capable of doing a good deal of 

 mischief. 



The Buffalo gnat is commonly considered a southern insect, pretty 

 closely restricted to the bottom lands along the Mississippi River, so 

 far as its injuries are concerned. It is sometimes very common locally 

 in Kentucky, generally along the ^Mississippi in the extreme western 



